I think trying to talk about corporate tax collection per capita makes the discussion much more complex because we have to consider a lot of other questions (such as determining the impact of corporations on median standard of living).
But let me take a stab at it anyway.
I think its fair to say that the GP's concern is not collections per capita, but collections per person in poverty. In the 1950s, there were 39.5M people in poverty [1], while in 2012 there were 46.2M people in poverty [2]. So in 2012 dollars, we were spending ~$4500 per person in poverty in 1950, while today we spend ~$5200 per person in poverty.
Of course, you can play with the start and end dates to make the trend look different. But the fact is, by just about any measure, corporations paying quite a bit in taxes.
Comments
I think trying to talk about corporate tax collection per capita makes the discussion much more complex because we have to consider a lot of other questions (such as determining the impact of corporations on median standard of living).
But let me take a stab at it anyway.
I think its fair to say that the GP's concern is not collections per capita, but collections per person in poverty. In the 1950s, there were 39.5M people in poverty [1], while in 2012 there were 46.2M people in poverty [2]. So in 2012 dollars, we were spending ~$4500 per person in poverty in 1950, while today we spend ~$5200 per person in poverty.
Of course, you can play with the start and end dates to make the trend look different. But the fact is, by just about any measure, corporations paying quite a bit in taxes.
[1] http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/#3 [2] http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2011/...