Don't forget it took a democratic US president getting elected four times in a row to set up that tax rate. This tax status took about 30 years to fully reverse.
But then they'd have to dodge taxes by reinvesting in their company's reputation and their workers. Instead of just cashing out, they'd have to maintain the company reputation as an asset that would pay them forever, as long as the company stayed healthy.
The real reason is the corporate tax rate. It was 52%. Today it’s 21%, and it’s effectively close to zero for many corporations with the tax loopholes used to avoid taxation. Shell corporations, deferring taxes, what have you.
So the US has lost more than 50% of the corporate taxes collected since the ‘50s.
We are long overdue for a hard reset. We need a new government with a modern democracy, then the assets of the top 0.1% need to be nationalized. Let them keep enough wealth to still be in the top 10%, but hit them hard and fast. Also, we should do what china does and to end offshoring by forcing companies to sell 20% of their company to the US government if they want access to our markets. Next, we need tax breaks for companies who spend more money compensating their workers than giving money to the parasitic shareholders.
Yes but that was when manufacturing was 33% of the workforce.
Today it’s only 8%. Machinery and robots do the labor and generate extreme wealth in tech and other spaces.
So theoretically you would not REQUIRE the same degrees of exploitation to achieve a middle class similar to that time period.
The win of factory and laborers work is unionization. Tech means decentralized workforce and less likelihood to trust your peers and unionize which was one of the largest wins of the 50s. When you are rubbing elbows with your coworkers - and are geographically living through similar cost of living as your colleagues - you are more likely to strike or require the same or similar types of improvements at the same moments.
What people in the US are failing to understand is that there are still good manufacturing jobs in the US today. Pharmaceuticals, aerospace, biotech, etc. They’re just on the higher end and require some type of technical or bachelors degree. Although, with the current regime and how they want to run (or not run) education, makes it seem like they want to bring us back to a developing country status where labor standards are low and manufacturing jobs are “low skilled.”
Except that is entirely incorrect? It is almost solely because the USA was 50% of the world economy at the time. Restoring the top marginal tax rate to 91% will not return us to prosperity
agreed. taxing the ultra rich is the only legal method available to the 99% to redistribute wealth back down the masses who have been systematically robbed and exploited and manipulated by oligarchs. who cares if revenues go up or down? either we tax the robber barons or we seize their assets... or our kids and grandkids will be destitute.
Yes, but don't forget that liberals had many many chances to undo the damage Republicans did but they never would. Why? Because liberals are capitalists and capitalist politicians ultimately serve the capital class first and foremost
Anyone that thinks these fascists running the country want to go back to the 1950s hasn’t been paying attention. They want to go back to 1850s, when women and minorities were second class citizens or not citizens at all and white Anglo Saxon Christian men ran everything.
How’d we get there at the time? Was it public political will? The need to fund the world wars? Did we always have high rates and only in the last few decades back off from that being the norm?
We had high tax rates which is entirely unrelated to the prosperity of the 1950s which was based on the USA comprising 50% of the world economy.
We cut the rates in 1983 and took in more revenue overall which indicates that a top marginal rate can be set high enough to encourage tax fraud, tax evasion, and tax avoidance. This is what Laffer suggested at a cocktail party and is now known as “The Laffer Curve”