I'm willing to engage in a conversation on this. My dad was born in 1900 and he had to quit school in the 8th grade to help support the family. From what he has told me and from what I have read, most people in teh US were really poor. Much more poorer than the people at the bottom of the economic scale in the US today. I'm not sure what the purpose of posting the tax rates so I will wait on a response before replying on those.
Forgot about this post, having so much fun with Ass.
Yes most people were poor in 1900, and the middle class was practically non-existent.
It's generally accepted that Unions were one of the greatest contributors to the rise of a strong middle class in America.
In 1913, the 16th amendment was ratified which made the federal income tax a permanent fixture in America. The chart I was looking at started in 1913, and it was in response to Satellite's about taxes our group pays (drivers) and top 1%'ers. I inferred, as what seems to be the conventional wisdom today, that he is espousing that income taxes are inherently evil, are holding back prosperity, and we pay too much. I personally used to have this belief and while I'm not excited about paying income taxes (who is except that 'tard who retired from Google), I have now seriously questioned that belief:
Like Ronnie's idea of "trickle down" never worked, neither has slashing the income tax rates. Look here:
National Taxpayers Union - History of Federal Individual Income Bottom and Top Bracket Rates
to see a history over time and note how little we pay today. What it's not showing you is the erosion of solid middle to upper middle class families who paid the bulk over the years. Now it's too few on top and too many on the bottom paying little to nothing.
I'd like to see the uberwealthy get hosed. Oh not "put them in a poorhouse" hosed, they can still have an opulent lifestyle, but I want to see them give till it almost coulda kinda sorta smarted just a tiny bit. Not give for show in their pet charities or philanthropist organizations where they call all the shots.
I'd like to see a break for people who employ a lot of people and pay them well that are in the upper class. The more they spread it around, the better chance they will have to get into the uberwealthy over time.
Hopefully this leads to bringing more people solidly in the middle class, where most people are satisfied. Sure, we all say we want to be uberwealthy, but most people are just fine with the dream.
I'm not for earned income tax credits or other crap for poor people. I think everyone needs to be putting
something into the pot even if it's pennies. If you aren't homeless and jobless (which shouldn't be happening in America) then something needs to be contributed.
I'm against sales taxes in general as it's too regressive and volatile. Punitive sales taxes, like the ones on alcohol and tobacco, just lead to funding new entitled organizations that while they
should die as the product they are fighting against loses sales, they often don't and cry for funding anew from the rest of us. States such as Oregon seem to do just fine without sales taxes and I wish more would follow that example.
So basically what I'm saying is that there were a lot of years where people were more prosperous overall (even though we didn't have ipads and cell phones etc) and it's in large part because the middle class was strong, paid taxes and also wealthy people paid much more significant taxes than they do today.