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Once upon a time, free-market capitalism did the 'make egalitarian' part just fine. In the 1960s, the USA had a 91% marginal tax rate for the highest income bra
by danielheath 6y ago
Once upon a time, free-market capitalism did the 'make egalitarian' part just fine. In the 1960s, the USA had a 91% marginal tax rate for the highest income bracket (91% of income over 200k went to the government). In 2019 it's 37%.
- Gibbon1 6y agoSomething I picked up that seems to have been dropped down the memory hole. Under Truman the US was running a hot consumer command economy from the end of WWII to the mid 50's. In some ways very much like China is doing now. Also mid 1980's to 2000 saw the depression era limits on accumulating wealth via pure capital machinations removed one by one. Were now in the reverse situation. from 1950. Where it was possible to make money producing consumer goods and impossible to make money via rent seeking. Now rent seeking is how you make money. And it's obvious looking at the government response to the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic this year that's being enforced via policy.
- asddubs 6y agoI think part of the problem is that money is a proxy for political power, causing a tendency for legislative devolution like you describe