Quote:
Originally Posted by nfotiu
It was at a high threshold, for limited types of income. Almost no one paid it, and if they did, it was just on a small portion of their income. It raised very little revenue, and rich people then were not paying a significantly higher effective tax than rich people now.
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What you say is accurate, to a point. This graph should help people understand the issue better as it shows top effective rate over time.
The biggest issue to what you're saying is the wealth gap was not quite so large historically. Since the 80s that wealth gap has skyrocketed and now we see more people in that top bracket than ever before. If the US would be consistent in the tax code and make the rich pay their fair share, we would be able to pay for those "free things" - like health care and basic retirement - that Cliff thinks are luxuries.