Part 2 (A bit late due to internet problems)…
The Income Disparity wreckage is evident throughout the United States. It is to such a point as to be undermining the very solidity of the nation. The reasons some sectors of the population inflame, particularly during a hot-summer, is because of the dire economic prospects of those who live in them. …
How did we come to this situation? Historically it goes back to JFK - but it was LBJ who signed a reduction of upper-income taxation. Johnson, who had some very rich friends in Texas and wanted to get elected on his own - so he signed the bill in effect paving the way down from 90% to 70% in reduction. It bought him the presidency....
For the longest time Income Taxation was thought to be anti-constitutional (which pleased America's richest class) - until 1913, when the 16th amendment to the Constitution instituted the Income Tax in the US.
1) Should you pause to breath, in your otherwise breathless screed, you might note the premise of moral depravity in your complaint.
There are two kinds of left-wing motivation: the first being compassion for those who don't make enough for a secure and rewarding life.
The second kind is nothing more than raging envy of those who make a lot more money than you. Demands for a limit on maximum income has nothing to do with compassion, it has to do with a deep character flaw rooted in jealousy, anger, and a need to punish.
2. You're repeating a tiresome error that has become a cliché. As has been pointed out by economists and accountants for many decades the published tax rates were not the REAL tax rates. Why that important fact can't find lodgment in any liberal's long term memory is so bizarre that it screams for a neurological study of the syndrome.
3) Income disparity does not necessitate summer riots, not unless one encourages and facilitates the sin of envy among the masses - you know, someone like you.
4) The current gap in income inequality has nothing to do with tax rates; it is the widening gap in PRETAX income that has driven increased inequality. Bluestone suggested ten factors: technology, trade, a shift from manufacturing to services, deregulation, declining unionization, downsizing, winner-take-all labor markets, capital mobility, immigration, and trade deficits.
To the degree it needs "cured", feel free to tinker with any of them and see how it effects (or effected) the American people.
5) The challenge of a maximum tax rate is that one cannot change the distribution of earned income without effecting the incentives for work and investment. A society wherein the maximum income is, for example, 100,000 per year would radically alter economic production and distribution, not for the better.
All that said, there is a part of me that would delight in giving the left what they want, good and hard (say a max of 100K a year). Imagine how the 6 figure federal employee, and tenured faculty, would wail. And the Hollywood celebs? Just to hear their hypocritical screams might make it worthwhile.
