Here’s my contribution to today’s tax day festivities: an effort to get you to think about federal taxes a little bit differently than usual. Normally, when we talk about taxes, we end up talking about percentages of people: the top 1% pay a certain amount, the bottom third pay a different amount, etc. But this is the wrong way to look at things. What we ought to be looking at is percentages of income.

via How to Think About Taxes | Mother Jones.

One of the best analysis of income taxes I have ever seen…Puts a new spin on the talking points you are always hearing. This chart says it all but go read the whole thing, Kevin has done some great work here:

Here is what he considers optimal…

And here is the actual…