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A comment on You Can't Soak the Rich.

Re:You Can't Soak the Rich by sanj on Tuesday May 20, 2008 @03:51PM (#195209)
By my read, this means that we should raise the top marginal tax rate to 90%. Why? If it doesn't matter, then you might as well make the unwashed masses (like me!) happy that the rich are "doing their fair share".

Hauser fails to see that savvy political policy does not flow from "rational" economic policy.

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Re:You Can't Soak the Rich by wmf on Tuesday May 20, 2008 @04:03PM (#195225)
Read more carefully. If you increase the marginal tax rate, GDP probably decreases and thus tax revenue decreases.
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Re:You Can't Soak the Rich by dreish on Tuesday May 20, 2008 @04:25PM (#195265)
Except it didn't. GDP grew faster in the fifties, with a 90% "millionaire's tax", than it did in the eighties, as top marginal rates were being cut to their lowest levels.

Numbers from here:

http://www.economagic.com/em-cgi/data.exe/var/rgdp-qtrchg

But this is something I noticed around 16 years ago.

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Re:You Can't Soak the Rich by Spyckie on Tuesday May 20, 2008 @04:35PM (#195277)
Thanks, finally someone is pointing to real data rather than just waiving a magic wand in the air.
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Re:You Can't Soak the Rich by jamespitts on Wednesday May 21, 2008 @03:16AM (#195802)
The real problem with this scenario is that those people who are being taxed 90% might feel less of an obligation to contribute back through charity (even if they are paying far less than 90%).
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