Here's a copy-paste of a still from the animated infographic in the tweet below.
It really is worth watching the 12-second animation in the tweet – also embedded below – where you also can click through to the NYT op-ed by David Leonhardt if you feel so inclined. If you need to, you can read an archived copy (missing the animated graphic you already saw in the tweet).
Note how the 99% used to pay tax at a much lower rate than the 1%. That was then, this is now. The richest 400 taxpayers now pay at a lower rate than anyone else. (Okay, at a lower rate than the rate for any decile.)
The situation is not hopeless.* See the NYT op-ed by David Leonhardt.
David Leonhardt is a former Washington bureau chief for the Times, and was the founding editor of The Upshot and head of The 2020 Project, on the future of the Times newsroom. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, for columns on the financial crisis.
*We've simply been propagandized for years by the rich and their well-compensated enablers in the media and government to believe that “there is no alternative” (!gb) to how things are.
Watch how radically taxes on the wealthy have fallen over the past 70 years:
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) October 7, 2019
(Full column: https://t.co/XP0a4Iljti) pic.twitter.com/dGxmOjQ1b5
Over last 75 years, US richest shifted taxes off themselves onto middle and lower incomes. Their tax "savings" helped buy politicians who cut their taxes.
— Richard D. Wolff (@profwolff) October 10, 2019
The reality behind "America First Patriotism."#HowCapitalismWorkshttps://t.co/PduE9GkZUI