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View Full Version : The Fantasy of a 91% Top Income Tax Rate



Peter1469
12-08-2012, 07:19 AM
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324705104578151601554982808.html?m od=googlenews_wsj

This is not a long article, but it has a lot of facts in it. You should read it all. It is amazing that the MSM and the mal-educated among us advance the argument that the rich use to be taxed at 90+% and the economy worked just fine.....

Democratic Party leaders, President Obama in particular, are forever telling the country that wealthy Americans are taxed at too low a rate and pay too little in taxes. The need to correct this seeming injustice is framed not simply in terms of fairness. Higher tax rates on the wealthy, we're told, would help balance the budget, allow for more "investment" in America's future and foster better economic growth for all. In support of this claim, like-minded liberal pundits point out that in the 1950s, when America's economic might was at its zenith, the rich faced tax rates as high as 91%.

Mainecoons
12-08-2012, 08:58 AM
Great read, Peter.

Facts are a bitch, eh Blad?


In 1958, the top 3% of taxpayers earned 14.7% of all adjusted gross income and paid 29.2% of all federal income taxes. In 2010, the top 3% earned 27.2% of adjusted gross income and their share of all federal taxes rose proportionally, to 51%.So if the top marginal tax rate has fallen to 35% from 91%, how in the world has the tax burden on the wealthy remained roughly the same? Two factors are responsible. Lower- and middle-income workers now bear a significantly lighter burden than in the past. And the confiscatory top marginal rates of the 1950s were essentially symbolic—very few actually paid them. In reality the vast majority of top earners faced lower effective rates than they do today.

From Peter's reference

GrassrootsConservative
12-08-2012, 09:53 AM
Lol bladimz, I had a debate with him yesterday and he told me that Obama taking away our right to choose our own healthcare is not a fact.

Chris
12-08-2012, 10:29 AM
Like this paragraph:


It is a testament to the shallow nature of the national economic conversation that higher tax rates can be justified by reference to a fantasy—a 91% marginal rate that hardly any top earners paid.