this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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Right, because the US immediately post-WW2 was an incredibly stagnant society with no visible benefits to the middle class.
What the fuck are you on about
Not American but the US had an extremely high tax rate on the rich for most of its prosperous years. It was only recent removed and you now have massive wealth inequality
Not to mention fantastic spending on college/university (GI Bill) to both slow the impact of returning military on the job market and to create a highly educated work force. Also, incredible help for people to become homeowners, creating generational wealth (GI Bill again), unless you were black.
People act like high taxes on the wealthy would be a problem, when in reality what happened is the wealthy poured more of the excess wealth into their businesses, which benefitted everyone. It's so annoying that we freaking know what works and what doesn't (trickle-down), yet still argue about their efficacy.
I love how the "conservative" idea is to return to 1950s socially, but sure not economically! It's also pretty clear that this idea that somehow having a 1% is driving the nation. Case in point this spat! Does Musk and Zuck fighting or competing in social media do much of anything for the country as a whole? At most, it's similar to what DC and Marvel competing in entertainment IMHO. I guess Twitter vs Facebook does something regarding society, but making it non-stagnant? I guess a lot of people were introduced to the term 'cuck'.
Well slap my balls, TIL.
Bet you thats why trusts and such were invented…
Also, the reason people throw out the 90% figure is because that's about what it was at the time. Granted most of the rich still managed to only pay ~70%.
Here's a couple jumping points: Historical chart, US tax history on Wikipedia
We also had a far less globalised market at the time where it wasn't as easy to move your money or citizenship to a country with friendler taxes.
Maybe do some reading on the history of taxation in the US. I'm surprised you're unfamiliar with what they're referring to when you hold such strong opinions on the matter.
I see now, didn’t know
Not OP, but we actually had a tax rate that high back then, and the US experienced unprecedented economic growth and technological innovation, along with an insanely strong middle class.