Aw shit, the Avengers trailer looks awesome.
1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of income taxes - ok. However, that same top 1% takes home 25% of all income generated by everyone in the country - important thing to remember.
However, that doesn't really explain enough.
Every person in the US needs a certain amount of income to pay for necessities - food, shelter, and the flat taxes (payroll, FICA, sales) that we all pay. Let's call that amount $30k per tax return - and that might not be enough.
It's only income in excess of that number that we could possibly consider taking income tax from, right? People making less than $30k/yr don't have anything left over - there's nothing to tax.
If you look only at income in excess of $30k/return - the necessities people need to get by - then the top 1% of all taxpayers (people making around $250k+) actually takes in 50% of all income beyond the necessities. 50%!
Knowing that - that taxpayers making over $250k/yr have access to 50% of all beyond-necessities income - makes the fact that that group pays 40% of all income taxes seem at least fair. In fact, it seems to clearly indicate that if having a functioning government is worthwhile, that the wealthiest Americans can afford to put up a bit more. I wish all of the Occupy Wall Street people understood this.
St00n