On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 9:34 PM, Judah Mc wrote: > The expansion of the middle class > was enormous. And that was all done with a very progressive tax > structure with tax rates far outstripping anything even vaugely > proposed by anyone today. This "punishing success" is a total fiction. >
Except that there were so many loopholes in the tax code that wealthy Americans paid no income taxes at all. Abuse was so rampant that Congress enacted the AMT in 1969 to prevent the wealthy from paying no taxes. All top-tier taxation history until then is suspect. From 77% in 1969, the top marginal rate since 1987 has floated between 28% and 39.6%. http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php Which feels like about what people will tolerate. It has only been in the last 2 decades, and really only in the last > decade, that the concentration of wealth amongst the very tiniest > fraction of top earners has been so pronounced. The acceleration of > that disparity is amazing and we have the robber barons back once > again. > In a way, yes. The current dislocation is due to globalization and the rise of the information society. The great irony of our current situation is that if we simply let all the zombie companies fail, we will end up in a place where wealth disparity is far smaller than it is today. So let's let them all go down - gently, if possible, but down. We should have enough smart people in place in government posts to prevent total chaos. If not, let the government hire contractors to handle the excess work. That's where we should be spending our "stimulus" money. Let the giants fall, let new companies rise from their ashes. I don't see Goggle or Microsoft leaving for the Grand Caymans, do you? > I would not count out the possibility of any highly profitable company relocating outside the U.S if, for instance, the government raised the corporate profits tax rate to 90%. I don't know much about international corporate taxation, Obama figures he is going to test the boundaries of optimal taxation, but that's a risky venture. Better to keep taxes low and enourage investment. Go. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. And everyone who > whinges about their success being punished can just go suck on a > pacifier in the corner while I continue to bust my ass and actually, > you know, succeed. > Americans in general will continue to bust their asses, because we don't know how to do otherwise. We're a hard-working country. But that will change if we become like Europe, decadent and soft. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:295404 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
