Why Americans Should Be Thankful For Income Tax

[applegrove]

Why Americans Should Be Thankful For Income Tax

by John Buenker & Sam Pizzigati, Reuters (Business Insider)

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-americans-should-be-thankful-for-income-tax-2013-10

"SNIP.............................


These high-tax years — for the rich — should have been a time of economic calamity. At least according to the critics of progressive income taxation. But real life proved these critics wrong. Commerce did not cease when the tax code levied steeply graduated rates on U.S. incomes. The wealthy did not flee. The entrepreneurial spirit did not evaporate.

Quite the contrary. The United States thrived throughout the mid-20th century heyday of high taxes on the rich. We became the first mass middle-class nation in the history of the world, the first industrial nation ever where the majority did not live in poverty.

The progressive income tax was a key pillar of this middle class “golden age.” Fiscally, the nation’s steeply graduated tax rates raised the revenue that bankrolled new programs and services that opened doors into middle-class life. Culturally, these same steeply graduated rates sent the message that American society frowned on incomes that towered too high over the nation’s economic and political landscape.

Looking back on those years now, the historical record is clear: America works best when we tax progressively — and significantly so.



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[Jim Warren]

1. Taxes are a good investment

or at least should be for it is the price one pays to live in a civil society.

[FreakinDJ]

4. Correction: High Taxes on Wealth Create Good Investment

Capitol Investment
R&D Investment
Education Investment
Labor Investment

Once the tax rate on Corporations and the Wealthiest 1% ceased so did their investment in America

[Jim Warren]

6. Good points

and a more concise analysis than my simplistic counter to the frequent RW talking point blather of "it's your money" while conveniently ignoring the leg-up from decades of public largesse that came before.

[LiberalEsto]

2. Taxes also paid for the interstate highway system and other infrastructure

which unfortunately is not being properly maintained in these years of "austerity" and tax cuts for the rich.

[pampango]

3. Great post, applegrove. Progressive taxes

have been and must be a key element of a strong middle class. It was true on the US and still is on other countries.

[Kaleva]

5. We could go back to the tax rates in effect during the Eisenhower years

Adjust for inflation.