Re:On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't
by leetcrew on Monday March 01, 2021 @03:11PM
(#26307739)
> and why we never had millionaires back when the top bracket was > 90%
some caveats apply to this offhand quip (very different tax laws and perhaps even widespread evasion meant almost no one was paying an effective tax of 90%, regardless of actual income). I suspect you know this.
I'm sure there's a lot of slack in the tax brackets. I doubt we are close to a laffer curve inflection point. all I'm saying is I'm not convinced by the style of argument that goes "we already have enough food for everyone; we just need to radically reorganize the economy and then no one will go hungry!". more analysis is needed.
Re:On the Experience of Being Poor-Ish, for People Who Aren't
by sriram_sun on Monday March 01, 2021 @06:20PM
(#26309877)
> and why we never had millionaires back when the top bracket was > 90%
Over 20% of the money in circulation in the US was printed last year. i.e. the pot is much bigger now. Also, while tax rates were high back then, loopholes were proportionately larger!
Of course people can keep the surplus. Some of it. But we're a far, far cry from the point where people will stop working when only getting a percentage of their labor's worth (or their parent's labor's worth, as is often the case).