gruez 4 days ago

>at one point Taxes in the US were 70-90%.

That figure is highly misleading to cite by itself because the high tax rate also came with a bunch of loopholes and exemptions. That's why despite the drop in the headline rate of 70-90% or whatever, the actual tax take as % of GDP has remained remarkably steady in the past 7 decades.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S

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  • jungturk 4 days ago

    This chart shows total tax receipts as a percent of GDP, which doesn't seem to address the poster's contention that historically the rich paid a higher share of those receipts through elevated marginal tax rates.

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servo_sausage 4 days ago

Kind of a false statement; on paper it was higher, but the exemptions were also significantly much bigger and more nakedly biased.

So it's not like it was actually a tax on the wealthiest, more a targeted tool to apply state power.

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mcntsh 4 days ago

You could argue that the world is way more globalized today.

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m463 4 days ago

you can leave state taxes.

For example GWB "lived" in texas the whole time he worked in washington.

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