4 ms·

Weird because nobody quit working during the 50s-86 out of principle when top federal marginal rates were between 90% and 50%.

• flangola7 3y ago
  The arguments against strong marginal tax rates are not made in good faith. They're very consciously crafted by the rich.
• leereeves 3y ago
  How can you possibly claim that "nobody quit working during the 50s-86 out of principle"? Lots of people retired early during that time (like any other time) and you don't know what all of their motives were.
  • anon25783 3y ago
    Let's revise the claim, since you want to be pedantic: "Very few people, if any, quit working during the 50s-86 in protest of the high marginal tax rate".
    • leereeves 3y ago
      And do you have some evidence for that revised claim?
• mc32 3y ago
  That rate was in principle but hardly anyone paid the top rate and indeed spurred tax avoidance tactics: https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/taxes-on-the-rich-1950s-not-high/ https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/taxes-on-the-rich... So people didn't "quit working" but people earning over 200K (~2MM today) did start looking at ways to avoid having to pay those taxes and the net effect was that the effective tax rate for them was in the mid 40% range (a few points higher than today but by no means much higher).