Taxes: Who Pays and What For?

Fat cat pays a pittance in taxes to Uncle Sam in vintage cartoon. This week on CounterSpin: It is tax season in the US,  when some of us wonder why the government, which knows how much we earn, requires us to guess, with the threat of prison if we guess wrong. And leads some of us to ponder what we get in return for our resources—streets and stop signs, to be sure, but also wars and wheelbarrows of money doled out those who already have plenty. We’ve talked about taxes and tax policy a lot on CounterSpin, enough to put together a walk-through of some of the issues, and the way news media explain them. You’ll hear from Steve Wamhoff, Dean Baker, Jeremie Greer and Michael Mechanic. Steve Wamhoff Transcript: ‘There Is a Different Set of Rules for Someone Like Donald Trump’ Dean Baker Transcript: ‘The Distribution of Income Depends on How We Structure the Economy’ Jeremie Greer Transcript: ‘1 Percent of Taxpayers Receive More Than the Bottom 80 Percent’ Michael Mechanic Transcript: ‘We Can Pay for What We Decide to Pay For’ Taxes, and how they’re not just an April 15 thing, this week on CounterSpin!