Agreed but that alone does not explain all the plot [1]: the slope of all the curves was zero or even slightly negative until 1980. Then the share of the top 0.

Agreed but that alone does not explain all the plot [1]: the slope of all the curves was zero or even slightly negative until 1980. Then the share of the top 0.01% started to climb very significantly. I don't know what could explain such a change. Were the capital gains taxes prior to 1980 high enough to ensure a strong enough redistribution of the wealth creation so that the shares were almost stable over time? Arguably the maximum capital gains rate has decreased after 1980 [2]. But could that explain everything? Or maybe the rich US residents are getting much better at finding creative ways to evade US taxes nowadays (legally or not)? [1] http://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/houseofdebt_SaezZucman21.png http://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/houseofdebt_Sa... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Top_Capital_Gains_Tax_Rates_and_Economic_Growth_1950-2011.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Top_Capital_Gains_Tax_Rate...