Had a discussion with one of my friends about the national deficit. She proposed that we could easily solve the deficit by simply imposing higher taxes on corporate profits.

I made a quick chart to demonstrate to her how far past the point of taxing our way out we are - here are the top 10 most profitable U.S. corporations (at the time) and their combined profits compared to the annual deficit.

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Thanks for sharing chart. Those numbers make things pretty clear.

Correction - these are the top U.S. corporations by market cap

Also, I must clarify that I don’t support this type of a policy. This is purely a mathematical thought experiment - the incentives and model for most businesses would be destroyed with 100% taxes and the economy would cease to function in any reasonable manner.