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1 edit | reply to patcat88
Re: Celebrating "Labor"...? said by patcat88:notice the tax rate during the 1950s/1960s, and then all hell breaks loose when the tax rate starts falling (1970s/1980s). Also see this wikipedia article showing both top and bottom rates, and a graph depicting the amount of progressivity (levels) of rates.
Comparing taxation is difficult because these tables don't show the distribution of taxation. For example, what income level did the bottom rate apply to? (The first pre-16th amendment tax applied to only 10% of the population.). What income level did the top rate apply to? Also, how many loopholes existed to reduce the +90% top rate of the 1950s compared to the loopholes available to today's 35% top-rate payers?
This is an interesting table showing how global marginal rates dropped globally since 1979. But, it's still difficult to make a comparison without knowing the level of progressiveness of each nation, income exclusions, loopholes, etc.
Maybe the only thing that's easy to understand is America's growing disparity of income and wealth. A problem which was a concern going back to the Founding.
Example,
when the laws undertake... to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society... have a right to complain of the injustice to their Government. -- President Andrew Jackson, 1832, » www.gutenberg.org/etext/10858I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the measures of the government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer. -- President William Harrison, 1840, » home.att.net/~howington/whh.html |
