Like most treatments of this topic, when comparing tax rates from the 1950s and 1960s to today, it fails to note that very few people actually paid this much hi

Like most treatments of this topic, when comparing tax rates from the 1950s and 1960s to today, it fails to note that very few people actually paid this much higher marginal rates. Instead, the high taxation on the upper income brackets encouraged companies to offer perks and benefits that would not be classified as income, and the wealthy would take advantage of these instead. Furthermore, yes, tax rates are lower today if you exclude Social Security and OASDI[0], but tax revenue as a percentage of national income is higher. That's a sign that the higher tax rates did actually suppress economic activity, and that both the government and its citizens are actually better off with tax rates closer to what they are today than what they were 50-70 years ago. [0] SS/OASDI tax rates have increased sevenfold since they were introduced in the late 1930s