| The Ghost of RubangB said: So when the richest tax bracket used to get taxed over 50% of their income, why did we still have jobs, rich people, and economic growth? Shouldn't that have scared all the rich people and jobs away? We've been cutting taxes for decades now. Why isn't it raining jobs? Why is deficit spending okay but taxes are not okay? Does anybody honestly believe that it's easier to pay off our deficit with spending cuts alone and not any tax increases? |
In short... because everything you stated isn't true... and that in fact was the case.
Our lowering of taxes actually did cause a "rain of jobs". Up until the economy got fucked up... largely thanks to the fed.
When we had a 50% tax bracket... our unemployment was actually very high like it is now.
Note how the unemployment goes down as they start bumping up the number you need to qualify for the top bracket.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213
http://www.truthandpolitics.org/top-rates.php
http://www.miseryindex.us/urbymonth.asp
You could get away with high tax rates before due to globalization being relativly low. With globalization now though.
For a comparison. In 2009 our unemployment rate was equal to what the average unemployment rate was in the EU in 2004.
The US very much was "raining jobs". Right now our unemployment rates, which seem ghastly to us are actually the norm for a lot of other first world countries.
The lowest unemployment number in France in the last decade or so was 7.7%. That was the Unemployment rate of the US during Obama's first term. Their best low point was a freaking disaster to us.
Not saying the economy is that simple... but in reality... the numbers argue exactly against what you were suggesting. There is much more to the economy then tax rates... but it's fairly obvious lower tax rates do help just based on the risk vs reward of starting new buisnesses and expanding.
