Urgency To Raise Marginal Tax Rate On Wealthiest To 70 Percent, As Existed In Years 1936-1951, And 1963-1980, With 90 Percent Between 1951-1963, All Of Which Created The Middle Class

With the middle class rapidly diminishing, and poverty spreading to more and more of Americans, a trend since 1980, it is urgent that America go back to the tax policy that prevailed from 1936-1980.

From the time of the New Deal at its peak in the mid 1930s through the year of the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the US government, by its tax policy, created a growing and prosperous middle class, and while the wealthy complained about the tax rates, it did not harm them, but made a vast difference to the nation.

The marginal tax rate, meaning the tax rate above a fixed income, reached 70 percent from 1936 to 1951, and was raised further to 90 percent from 1951-1963, followed by a return to 70 percent from 1963-1980. It allowed a growing middle class to improve their life style and buy goods and services that could not have occurred without this small sacrifice by the wealthy.

Now, it has been proposed that the marginal tax rate go back up to 70 percent on incomes over $10 million, so notice this is not raising taxes on the first $10 million of income, and is not going to strip the top one percent of their wealth by any means.

The middle class dwindled once the tax rate was allowed to plummet under Ronald Reagan onward, and has led to an economy where former middle class people, who still think they are middle class, have to work second and third jobs, and both wife and husband must work full time, in order to struggle to remain in the lower middle class at best.

This is not good for the struggling middle class, and in the long run, is a detriment to the wealthy. The anger and bitterness over the unfairness of our tax policy endangers everyone.

Instead of keeping the tax rate at what it was, the wealthy have had three massive periods of tax cuts, under Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and now Donald Trump. It is time for that horrible tax policy to come to an end, as the wealthy do not need any more exploitation of the middle class and the poor to be on their necks.

2 comments on “Urgency To Raise Marginal Tax Rate On Wealthiest To 70 Percent, As Existed In Years 1936-1951, And 1963-1980, With 90 Percent Between 1951-1963, All Of Which Created The Middle Class

  1. D January 24, 2019 4:16 am

    Ronald writes,

    “Now, it has been proposed that the marginal tax rate go back up to 70 percent on incomes over $10 million, so notice this is not raising taxes on the first $10 million of income, and is not going to strip the top one percent of their wealth by any means.”

    Addressing this:

    ‘Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez’s Plan to Raise Top Tax Rate to 70 Percent Is Supported by Most Americans: Poll’

    By Nicole Goodkind (01.15.2019)
    https://www.newsweek.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-tax-rate-70-percent-1293096

    The majority of Americans support a 70 percent marginal tax rate on income over $10 million, according to a Hill-HarrisX poll released Tuesday [01.15.2019].

    Democratic-Socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [D–New York #14] first suggested the idea as a way to fund the progressive Green New Deal legislation which would work to move the U.S. economy towards renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions.

    “You look at our tax rates back in the 1960s and when you have a progressive tax rate system. Your tax rate, you know, let’s say, from zero to $75,000 may be 10 percent or 15 percent, et cetera,” said the New York representative in a recent [“60 Minutes”] interview. “But once you get to, like, the tippy tops—on your 10 millionth dollar—sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent. That doesn’t mean all $10 million are taxed at an extremely high rate, but it means that as you climb up this ladder you should be contributing more.”

    …

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