I think you're leaving out a super important point. These tax rates didn't affect people making this amount of money. The capital gains tax was 25% at the time,

I think you're leaving out a super important point. These tax rates didn't affect people making this amount of money. The capital gains tax was 25% at the time, so business owners and investors were not paying 84% tax. If they had been, the oil tycoons of the 50's (basically the entire fortune list) would never have become so wealthy.