Earning divide: an issue to be addressed

To the editor,

Re: 'The rich are paying their taxes: readers,' Letters, Feb. 2.

Taking letter writer Claire Hoy's advice, "You can look it up," I discovered his data differed considerably from that provided by the bastion of conservative thinkers, The Fraser Institute.

This august right-wing think tank noted the Top five per cent of taxpayers paid 35.7 per cent of all federal taxes, not 58.72 per cent.

He also conveniently ignored a more revealing statistic: the top five per cent earned 20.6 per cent of all federal claimed income while the bottom 50 per cent earned 21.7 per cent.

A few hundred thousand people at the top earned as much as the about 10 million people at the bottom. This is the real issue Canadian governments should be addressing.

Denis McKee