Perhaps 75% of Americans do believe the wealthy should pay more taxes (why not!), but what if we instead asked exactly how much the highest marginal rate should

Perhaps 75% of Americans do believe the wealthy should pay more taxes (why not!), but what if we instead asked exactly how much the highest marginal rate should be? I'd guess 30-50% of answers would actually be below the current rate (39.6%). What percentage of respondents would want to lower the current rate after learning the current value? What percentage of Americans actually understand marginal tax rates in the first place? As for meaningful policy, high income earners have little in the way of income and alot in the way of capital gains. Should we increase short/long term capital gains taxes or impose marginal taxes? Public policy needs an actual number and that also happens to be the sticking point! People are upset about income inequality (or just mad at large) so they say we should increase taxes on the rich. I think these sorts of surveys should be taken like any other sort of user feedback; listen to the problems and discard the proposed solutions. We have actually run the experiment of tax policy by popular vote in California, and not unexpectedly, its a disaster! Lets tell our goals to the economists and let them figure out the rest. see also: https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/12/noisy-poll-results-and-reptilian-muslim-climatologists-from-mars/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/12/noisy-poll-results-and...