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Show Utnhns Spend Less for Food, More for Taxes, Survey Shows Americans are spending a smaller proportion of their personal incomes on food and a larger percentage is going for taxes, according to a study just completed by Utah Foundation, the private pri-vate tax research organization. organiza-tion. Despite inflation, the pro-pcrtion pro-pcrtion of personal income going for food purchases in 1953 declined to 14.4 per cent, the lowest percentage in history. his-tory. By comparison, food took 23.3 per cent of person- ' al income in 1930, 21.2 per- cent in 1910, 20.2 per cent in 1950, and 17.5 per cent in 10. Taxes, on the other hand, reached another all-time high in 19M, accounting for 36.8 per cent of personal income. in-come. This compares with a total tax burden of 13.6 per cent in 1930, 22.1 per cent in 1940. 29.2 per cent in 1930, and 33 6 per cent in I960. Foundation analysts poiiV. out that total taxes in the United States last year exceeded ex-ceeded the combined a-motints a-motints spent by individuals for food, clothing, and housing. hous-ing. According to the Foundation Founda-tion reports, total taxes paid in the United States during 1968 amounted to $253 billion. bil-lion. This sum compares with $99.4 billion expended for food. $55.5 billion spent for clothing and accessories, (including jewelry), and $77. 4 billion going for housing. The tax figures cited in the Utah Foundation report include all direct, indirect, and social insurance taxes. Direct taxes are taxes pa'd to governmental units directly direct-ly by individuals. Indirect er jiidden taxes are amounts which generally are collected collect-ed or paid by business firms. Although indirect taxes may not be paid directly to government gov-ernment by individuals, they ultimately are borne by individuals in-dividuals through higher prices for goods and services or lower wages and dividends divi-dends Of increasing significance in the United Stales, according accord-ing to the Foundation, are the rapidly growing nonvoluntary non-voluntary contributions for social insurance programs, such as old-age, survivors, and disability insurance, medicare, me-dicare, unemployment compensation, com-pensation, and railroad retirement. re-tirement. Social insurance contributions have risen from SI. 8 billion in 1949 tc $4.7 bulion in 1950. $15.4 billion bil-lion in 1968. Most of these insurance programs wer? first instituted during th? 1930's. The Foundation study points out that total taxes in the United States have increased in-creased 39 per cent since 1965, 88 per cent since 1960, 281 per cent (nearly four times) since 1950, 1.367 per cent (nearly fifteen times) since 1940 and 2.312 per cent (more than twenty - four times) since 1930. |
