Inverted pyramids don't stand for long

As per the latest data from the Congressional Budget Office (not just Fox News for all you paranoid haters out there) the top 10% of the country that makes more than $92,400 a year pay 72.4% of the nation's income taxes.

In 2001, the bottom 60% of the country (those who make less than $44,300) paid just 3.3% of all income taxes. By 2005, they paid less than 1% of the income tax burden.

That bottom 60% makes 25.8% of the nation's income yet only pays .6% of the income tax.

The bottom 40% of Americans (who made less than $30,500) paid no income tax. Instead, they received checks from the government equaling $33.3 billion by 2005. (And we know who really pays those checks.)

So I'm not going to use this time to bemoan the inherent lunacy in this scheme. Only to establish a foundation for this ongoing debate over what's "fair" and "equitable" with regard to taxes and redistribution of wealth.

I will say that building upon such an unstable foundation will only result in catastrophic collapse.