I have two graphs to show you. And I promise you that at least one of them is going to make you angry. The thing is, I don't know which one will make you upset, because they tell very different stories, which have been used by different sides to make very different points.*

The first graph is more likely to raise your ire if you sympathize with the Occupy Wall Street movement. It shows what each group of Americans make, from the poorest 20 percent to the richest 20 percent. But as you can see, the richest 20 percent make so much more than the other 80 percent -- and the top one percent make so much more than the rest of the top quintile -- that it requires yet another breakdown.** The upshot is that the average 99th percenter makes more in a year than somebody in the bottom quintile would make in 150 years.



If you consider yourself a conservative, you're more likely to shrug off the first graph and take offense at the second. It compares the share of federal income taxes (which are a substantial but not exclusive part of federal government revenue) between the bottom 40 percent and the top 1 percent. The top one percent pays four times more than the bottom 40 percent.

Both of these graphs are true. Their truths are intertwined. The rich have much more money. They pay much more in federal income taxes. This sounds perfectly obvious. But I'm struck by how many times I hear one of those two facts without hearing the other.