Letter from the Editor
Share
Tweet
July 27, 2022
The Numbers
I have always loved data. I enjoy the truth that it tells me. “The numbers don’t lie” is a quote we have all heard. Real data doesn’t need a spin, witnesses, or its hand on the bible with hopes that we can depend on it for truth. Numbers just are what they are.
People can spin numbers however. Polls can be highly accurate or completely worthless depending on how they are done. The intent of the entity doing the poll can have a great deal to do with the numbers in the outcome. A great example would be a poll of people who prefer pizza to hamburgers, but doing the poll outside of the pizzeria. It is most likely the numbers would show that people prefer pizza to hamburgers. We see this kind of bias in political polls by both parties, and many popular news outlets. The census, however, is a good compilation of data that gives us so much information to make summations upon, and it is interesting.
In 2020 a new census was done for the United States. These numbers may have some degree of inaccuracy due to some people being polled giving dishonest answers, or many not even filling out the census. However, I feel that the data is large scale enough to offer a real picture of the truth.
Some of the incredible data that stands out to me is the increase in population throughout our nation. We gained 20 million people in ten years between 2010-2020. A rate of two million a year would mean that there are currently 4 million more in 2022 than when the census was taken.
The 2020 population of the United States of America stands around 331.45 million people. It is estimated that there were 14.5 million undocumented illegal aliens costing American taxpayers approximately 135 BILLION in 2020 before the flood gates really opened. It is estimated that there are currently 7500 illegals per day coming through the border. There is estimated 245.3 million taxpayers in the United States, leaving 86.15 million non-tax paying citizens. By the end of Bidens presidency, we could be on track for a population of 25.45 million illegal, undocumented aliens. Nearly double the 2020 estimate. If the cost to the tax base is also double, the 135 Billion becomes 270 Billion for our tax base and that isn’t counting the non-tax paying citizens, just the cost of illegal aliens. With an illegal population of 25.25 million, and a legal population of 86.15 million together not being part of the tax base, it is no wonder that it is a politically leveraged hot point. An important data point concerning taxes comes to voters. There are 213.77 million registered voters in the United States.
According to https://nationalinterest.org, “About 892,000 Americans are stuck with paying 39 percent of all federal taxes. The top 10 percent of income earners, those having an adjusted gross income over $138,031, pay about 70.6 percent of federal income taxes. About 1.7 million Americans, less than 1 percent of our population, pay 70.6 percent of federal income taxes.”
This is a lot of numbers and projections, but the big picture is painted that by 2024 there is potentially greater than 111.4 million non-tax paying people in the United States that will be supported by a meager 1% of the population, which would roughly look like 5.53 million paying 70% of the taxes. Or like the population of the State of Alabama paying the taxes for everyone in the United States.
Here is where I insert my opinion; It’s hard to imagine this business model holding up. The only option would be to raise the taxes on the middle class, or create a federal sales tax to replace the current tax system. As we have seen in many other countries, the rich move their businesses to lower tax-based countries, and that trend will only increase here if we demand a higher tax base from the wealthy, in turn creating an even greater burden on the middle class.
A sales tax is the fairest tax as everyone pays according to their wealth. Other countries would also pay a tax when doing business with us. Illegals pay, tourists pay, drug dealers pay, welfare citizens pay, the rich, the poor, the working, the non-working, even the politicians would have to pay! Imagine the tax we could raise from Nancys ice-cream freezer alone. Everyone who purchases something pays. People spend proportionally to what they have to spend, so it ends up being the fairest tax. Those who have more will still pay the majority of the tax, those with very little will pay very little in tax, but everyone will pay something, creating less political leverage to be gained by politicians, and division between the population. Its very nearly a peace treaty. Unfortunately, we realize that our government likes NEW tax, not replacement tax base.
Back to the census; Some other interesting information that the census gives us is the demographics of our nation. The Native American and Hawaiian native and Islander Native population is smallest population of demographic in the United States at (0.07%) and (0.02%), which strangely has not increased nor decreased over the ten-year span. They are far outnumbered by every demographic. The Hispanics were 18.6% of the population in 2020, a 2.2% increase, though due to the current border crisis, this increase rate is likely much higher now. Of the 20 million population gain of the United States over ten years, 11 million were Hispanic. This is the greatest increased demographic by far and not even comparable. The Black population stood at 12.6% in 2020, and increase of 0.3% in ten years. The Asian population was 5.9% in 2020, up 1.1% in the ten-year span. The Multi-Non-Hispanic (Eastern Indian, etc) made up 2.3% in 2020, increased by 0.5% in the ten-year span. Finally, the White population makes up the great majority of the United States at 59.7% of the population with a decrease of 4.1% in the ten-year span. This is the only demographic that lost population in the last ten years, and at a fairly significant rate. These rates of increase and decrease seem small, but can make a huge impact over time.
The population of Montana increased 9.1% from 2010-2020. We now have 1,084,225 people as of 2021. The United States as a whole grew at 6.5% during the same time frame. Gallatin County had the highest rate of increase gaining 27,144 more people by 2020, and Toole County decreased population by 657 over the ten-year span. Musselshell County increased 2.5% going from 4555 in 2010 to 4669 in 2020. We could estimate that we are roughly at 4904 currently if the rate of increase is the same.
I hope you found this interesting. If you did, I would love your feedback. You can email me at [email protected]. Here are the references for this article:
https://www.reference.com/world-view/many-u-s-taxpayers-d77a9265390f4bdb
Lura Pitman
Roundup
Reader Comments(0)