An interactive graphic at Vox explains how tax brackets have simplified over the years. You'll learn a lot by going through the entire interactive and exploring what happened, but you can look at this one still from it and see how income inequality has been boosted and how the government lost so much money that it has to run on deficits. It's no wonder that the ultra-rich consider Ronald Reagan a saint.
And lest you think that a rate of 94% was a lot in the past, remember these are marginal rates. Rich people in 1944 only paid 94% tax on the amount they made above $2.6 million that year, which was a very small number of people in 1944. Their first couple million was taxed at a lower rate, and their first million was even lower. Their effective tax rate was well within the bounds of normal.
Then us proles have to think, "Why does anyone need more than a few million in income in a year?" So they can destroy their competition (the Walton family). So they can buy and sell the rest of us (Mark Zuckerberg). So they can create monopolies (Jeff Bezos). So they can wield political power (Koch brothers). So they can play with expensive toys (Elon Musk). And once in a great while, so they can give it away (Bill Gates).
All in all, American don't pay enough taxes.
And lest you think that a rate of 94% was a lot in the past, remember these are marginal rates. Rich people in 1944 only paid 94% tax on the amount they made above $2.6 million that year, which was a very small number of people in 1944. Their first couple million was taxed at a lower rate, and their first million was even lower. Their effective tax rate was well within the bounds of normal.
Then us proles have to think, "Why does anyone need more than a few million in income in a year?" So they can destroy their competition (the Walton family). So they can buy and sell the rest of us (Mark Zuckerberg). So they can create monopolies (Jeff Bezos). So they can wield political power (Koch brothers). So they can play with expensive toys (Elon Musk). And once in a great while, so they can give it away (Bill Gates).
All in all, American don't pay enough taxes.
Is that last paragraph yours? It's pretty cool. I sometimes
ReplyDeletethink -
What if Elon Musk worked with the government to fund
infrastructure repair instead of sending cars into space?
or
What if Bill Gates worked with government to fund inner-city
education instead of giving it all away?
But that's just me. . .
The writing is all mine. Gates could have chosen a million different good things to do with that money, but he and Melinda determined that fighting diseases that kill children in third world countries would bring the most bang for the buck. I applaud that.
ReplyDeleteAnd wrt Musk, he's not just playing around sending cars into space. This was a test fight and it needed a payload. Nobody's going to risk their multi-million dollar satellite on a test launch. Why not have a little fun with it?
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of SpaceX as the expensive toy, but you're right, Tesla is, too. And the flamethrowers.
ReplyDelete