Do you consider yourself more left or right wing?

[zorg1000]

Chrkeller said:

zorg1000 said:

Was the US not also a leader in innovation in the 40s/50s/60s/70s when tax rates on income/corporations/capital gains were significantly higher?

That time period is nicknamed the “golden age of capitalismâ€Â and the top income tax rate ranged from 70% to 94% compared to 37% today, the top corporate tax rate ranged from 40% to 53% compared to 21% today, the top capital gains tax ranged from 25% to 35% compared to 20% today.

During this time, union membership was also significantly higher, minimum wage had significantly higher purchasing power, the safety net was rapidly being built, the regulatory state was built, homeownership rates were rapidly increasing.

I would understand your argument if the US wasn’t also the richest country with the strongest military and a leader in innovation during that time period…..but it was.

I would suspect US culture has shifted a lot since those times.  Same with human behavior.  

Richest country with 4% of the population...  strikes me as though we are doing something right.

I just worry when people, could be my interpretation, want to make drastic changes, when clearly a lot is working.

And if it helps, I think capital gains should go away.  Income should be taxed as income, source shouldn't matter.  Investment should be taxed, for everyone as ordinary income.  

What changed in terms of culture/human behavior that means we needed to have lower taxes in order to remain the richest country?

During the 40s-70s, the US was about 5-6% of the global population and the richest country so not sure how that supports that we are currently doing something right that we previously weren’t.

https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality

Pretty much lays out that from the mid 40s-mid 70s (post-war economic boom/golden age of capitalism), income grew at the same rate across the income spectrum. Inflation adjusted income went up about 100% for the median household along with the top 5% of households.

Since that point (Reagan/Bush/Trump tax cuts), inflation adjusted income has gone up just under 50% for the median household but a bit over 100% for the top 5% of households.

It also shows that since 1979 (Reagan/Bush/Trump tax cuts), income after taxes and transfers went up 73% for the middle 60% (middle class) while it went up 326% for the top 1% (the rich).

It’s not about people wanting to make drastic changes, it’s about people seeing that we had a system that was making life better for the average citizen and wanting to go back to that. We were the richest, strongest, most innovative country back then and we still are so I don’t see how slashing taxes over the last ~40 years has done anything but hurt the working/middle class while stuffing the pockets of the rich and causing the federal debt to skyrocket.