Taxes: Wrong on both counts

Everyone knows that the American working stiff is being taxed to death while U.S. corporations get off easy, right?

Well, who's everyone? And who says?

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development - a foreign-based entity with a hefty, non-socialistic budget and respected research - American workers are among the least-taxed people of the world's industrialized nations.

The average German worker pays 41.3 percent in income and Social Security taxes (2009 figures, the latest available). There's a steep drop from there: Austria is second (32.7 percent), followed by Italy (29.3), France (27.7), the United Kingdom (25.3) and Canada (22.6). Then comes the U.S., where the average worker pays 22.4 percent in income and Social Security tax. The only industrialized nation that's more tax friendly to citizens: Japan, at 20.1 percent.

So much for debunking one theory. Ready for another?

American corporations are at the other end of the scale. While U.S. workers are among the lowest taxed, those big rich corporations are among the most heavily taxed.

Japanese corporations pay the highest rate: 39.5 percent. But right behind them is the U.S., at 39.2 percent. Then there's another steep drop: France comes in at 34.4 percent, followed by Germany (30.2), Canada (29.5), United Kingdom (28.1), Italy (27.5) and Austria (25 percent).

This is not to say that you haven't earned the right to gripe about your taxes, particularly when it comes to the property variety. But next time you do, just keep in mind that almost everywhere else in the industrialized world, workers would trade places with you in a heartbeat.