As you read this New York Times piece keep the following in mind:
- What about non wage income, that is, financial income from stocks, bonds, and other investments? Of the top 1 or 2 % wage income can be insignificant compared to the financial income. How many ceos “sacrifice” and receive salaries of $1?
- Stating the top 1% pay a larger percentage of taxes is incomplete. What percentage of total income does the top 1% receive? If you receive 50% of all income shouldn’t you pay 50% of all taxes?
- The author is a Harvard professor and advisor to the losing campaign of Mitt Romney. The fiscal cliff will cost Mitt Romney more dollars than any of us.
- No discussion on corporate welfare programs that are likely orders of magnitude larger than the social welfare programs criticized in the article.
Efficient Minds™ 
I knew from your intro this was going to be from Mankiw. Professor Mankiw is a really smart economist, but his research and articles are filled with more plot holes than the last Transformer movie (the one without Meghan Fox).
The “financially successful” people he references,more often than not, use the financial system like a casino — the top 1% or so. This group has their basic needs met 1,000 times over.
It is not “fair” to ask the families earning $75,000 a year to finance the TARP bailout and two wars so the financially successful can drop the same $75,000 in a margin account and then avoid a tax increase.
Well said.