So this post is inspired by reading my hero, Paul Krugman's blog just now. It's an article revealing a video of presidential candidate Mitt Romney sharing his view to a group of what seems to be millionaire-sympathisers about how the default position for 47% of people in America will be to vote Obama because they're dependent on welfare and don't pay tax. Here's the article.

Mr Romney could benefit from better research before making outrageous comments about 47% of US citizens don't pay tax. I think what he was trying to refer to was income tax, but that ignores households that still pay payroll tax, and excludes local and state taxes.

(My hero) Dr Krugman refers to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities which estimate that "the bottom fifth of households pays about 16 percent of their incomes in taxes, on average". Bear in mind, the bottom fifth of households in 2007 (start of the GFC) had an average income of $18,400 in the US.

Quite a frightening view from a presidential candidate to think these people aren't contributing.