Well OK, but is he preparing for a run for president or something?

[Munu]

Jeff Bezos says bottom half of earners should pay zero in income taxes (CNBC)

Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos on Wednesday called for zero federal income taxes on the bottom half of earners.

The top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all the tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%, Bezos told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box.”

“I don’t think it should be 3%,” Bezos said. “I think it should be zero.”

The bottom half of taxpayers had an adjusted gross income of nearly $54,000 in 2023, according to the Tax Foundation, citing the most recent IRS statistics. By contrast, households in the top 1% earned at least $676,000 of income that year.

...

[AZJonnie]

1. Sloppy writing here, as per usual by the M$M

"The bottom half of taxpayers had an adjusted gross income of nearly $54,000 in 2023, according to the Tax Foundation, citing the most recent IRS statistics. "

No, actually, what you meant to say is that $53,801 is the CEILING for being considered in the bottom 50%.

Or even more clearly, for people who math: The median taxpayer AGI was $53,801.

Allow me to also add (from Claude):

The IRS estimates there are roughly 10–15 million non-filers in any given year. These are predominantly people at the very bottom of the income distribution — informal/gig workers paid in cash, undocumented workers, people living below the filing threshold (~$13,850 for a single filer in 2023), or people who simply don't engage with the tax system at all. By definition, none of them appear in the IRS percentile data we were discussing, which means every median and threshold figure we've been talking about is drawn from an already self-selected, somewhat more affluent population.

How Much It Would Move the Needle
If you folded in even 10 million people earning, say, $15,000–$20,000 or less, you'd be injecting a large block of very low earners into the bottom of the distribution. The 50th percentile cutoff would shift downward — potentially meaningfully — because you'd need a lower income to still be above half the expanded population.

A true median of "persons old enough to pay taxes" would be noticeably lower than $53,801, which is the median for FILERS.