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New York City Really Is Home To The 1%
By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 22, 2011
Modified Nov 22, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 22, 2011
Modified Nov 22, 2011
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The 1 percent are all around you! The rallying cry of the Occupy Wall Street types at Zuccotti Park turns out to be incredibly apt here in the NYC Metropolitan area where "Nine of the 10 most heavily taxed neighborhoods in the U.S." just happen to be, according to Internal Revenue Service data. What're we talking about here? Oh, y'know, nothing much. In 2008 the nine zip codes reported "$70.1 billion, or 0.9 percent, of the nation’s total adjusted gross income of $7.98 trillion."
The most taxes collected came from the 10021 zip on the Upper East Side, where just 29,820 individual returns were filed with a total income of $2.85 billion—and more than 93 percent of the households had gross incomes greater than $200,000.
After 10021 the five highest taxed zips are 10023 (UWS), 10128 (UES), 10022 (Midtown East), 10024 (UWS) and 10028 (UES). And then we move out to the burbs with Scarsdale (10583) followed by two zip codes in Fairfield County (06830 and 06831). In total the nine zips paid $16.5 billion in taxes in 2008, "enough to buy a controlling interest in General Motors Co. (GM) or match the combined economies of the Bahamas, Fiji and Tajikistan."
That New York (specifically upper Manhattan) is literally home to the 1 percent doesn't actually mean much regarding the OWS argument that they aren't giving their fair share. As one protestor put it to Bloomberg, the share of taxes paid "is irrelevant and a distortion of the fact that as a percentage, wealthy people pay far less as a portion of their earnings."
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the only zip code in the top ten not near the Hudson is in Houston, Texas.
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