I saw on facebook the following image

It was accompanied by this explanation:

The left continues to promote false claims, which too many people believe. For example, it’s reasonable to debate whether the rich pay their fair share of income taxes; it’s a lie to claim that the wealthy pay a lower tax rate than everybody else. They claim that Warren Buffett pays a tax rate of 0.1% while the average teacher pays 9.8%, or that Elon Musk pays 3.3% while the average registered nurse pays 13.3%.Bernie Sanders and others make those claims using numbers generated by ProPublica. For teachers and nurses, the tax rates are calculated as a percentage of income; however, for the wealthy, they use a percentage of wealth, not income. In other word, they are not calculated the same way. The top 1% actually pay about 26% of their income in federal taxes.The top 1% pay 40% of all federal taxes, while the bottom half pay virtually nothing. Why lie about that? This is typical of what Democrats and the media do.

I asked ChatGPT whether the image and explanation were fair. Here’s its reply:

Short answer: the Facebook explanation mixes some true statistics with misleading framing. The chart itself is broadly consistent with mainstream data, but the accompanying argument oversimplifies and selectively compares unlike measures (income vs wealth vs different tax categories). Below is a precise breakdown.

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1. The chart itself — generally consistent with accepted data

The pattern shown is roughly aligned with analyses from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and IRS:

Group	Share of Income	Share of Federal Taxes
Bottom 20%	very small	very small
Middle groups	moderate	similar
Top 1%	~20% of income	~35–42% of federal income taxes

Key reason: the U.S. federal income tax system is progressive — marginal tax rates rise with income.

So the statement:

“The top 1% pay about 40% of federal income taxes”

is broadly consistent with IRS statistics for federal income tax specifically.

However, that alone does not settle the “fair share” debate.

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2. The main confusion: income vs wealth vs total taxes

The Facebook post criticizes analyses from ProPublica (notably its “Secret IRS Files” reporting). The disagreement comes from measuring different things.

A. Income tax rate (traditional measure)

Calculated as:

[
\text{effective income tax rate} = \frac{\text{income taxes paid}}{\text{income}}
]

Using this definition, high earners generally pay higher average federal income tax rates than middle earners.

Typical estimates:

Group	Avg federal income tax rate
Middle-income households	~12–15%
Top 1%	~24–27%

So it is true that high-income households usually pay a higher percentage of income in federal income tax.

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B. Wealth growth vs taxes paid (ProPublica approach)

ProPublica examined billionaire finances and noted that much of their economic gain comes from asset appreciation (stocks, businesses), which is not taxed until sold.

Example simplified:

Year	Billionaire
Stock value rises	+$10 billion
Salary reported	$100 million
Tax paid	$20 million

Under standard income-tax accounting:

[
\text{tax rate} = 20%
]

Under wealth-change framing:

[
\text{tax relative to wealth gain} = 0.2%
]

This produces very low “rates” such as the often-cited Buffett or Musk figures.

Critics say this is misleading because unrealized gains are not income under current law.

Supporters argue it reflects true economic income and highlights tax advantages available to the ultra-wealthy.

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3. Another missing piece: payroll taxes and state/local taxes

The Facebook post focuses on federal income tax only, which is just part of the total tax burden.

Other major taxes:

Tax type	Who pays proportionally more
Payroll tax (Social Security, Medicare)	middle-income workers
State sales taxes	middle & lower income
Property taxes	broad base
Capital gains taxes	higher income households

Because payroll taxes apply mainly to wages and are capped, middle earners often pay a larger share of their total income in payroll taxes than billionaires do.

When all taxes are included, most analyses still find the system progressive overall, but less strongly so than income-tax-only figures suggest.

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4. “Bottom half pay virtually nothing” — misleading wording

It is true that:

• many lower-income households owe little or no federal income tax
• but most still pay payroll taxes, sales taxes, gasoline taxes, etc.

So “virtually nothing” applies only to one specific tax category.

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5. What economists generally agree on

Broad consensus points:

✔ The U.S. federal income tax system is progressive
✔ The top 1% pay a large share of federal income taxes
✔ Billionaires often have very low taxable income relative to wealth growth
✔ The debate depends heavily on definitions of “income” and “fair share”

Areas of disagreement:

• whether unrealized capital gains should count as income
• whether total taxes (not just income tax) are sufficiently progressive
• how much inequality should be offset by taxation

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6. Bottom line

The Facebook explanation is partly accurate but rhetorically selective.

Accurate:

• high earners pay a large share of federal income taxes
• ProPublica used wealth-growth comparisons that differ from traditional tax-rate calculations

Misleading:

• ignores payroll and other taxes paid by non-rich households
• frames a definitional disagreement as “lying”
• implies there is only one valid way to measure tax burden
• oversimplifies a complex policy debate

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If useful, I can also show:

• a chart of effective total tax rates by income group
• how Buffett’s famous statement about paying a lower rate than his secretary arose
• a technical comparison of CBO vs IRS vs ProPublica methodologies