"It's obvious that the middle class can be greatly strengthened, when some people made more money in the time that you read this post, than you'll make all year. History shows that society does not crater when the highest tax rate is, say, 70%. The Beatles paid 70+% in taxes at one point, yet they kept on producing. (I think Ayn Rand's theory is a bill of goods that one political party loves for you to believe.)"
The question about that highest tax rate is "who pays it?".
In England back in those days, you really didn't have to earn much money to pay that kind of tax rate. Hell, when I left England I was earning an "ok" amount of money and paying a 40% tax rate (without the additional 10% equivalent of social security/medicare). Back in the 60s and 70s, England was a pit of unemployment and general misery. If anything, that made for a lot of good music... Misery and free time can be inspiring.
When I read about people earning $100M a year, or the Simpson's voice talent earning $400K an episode (or whatever the new deal is), it makes me sick. It's disgusting that there are so many people out there that earn MASSIVE amounts of money and so many that are barely getting by.
I don't know why we don't have a 90%+ tax bracket on household income over $1M (or 500K, or whatever). I'd be totally fine with some stupid movie star earning $20M a movie if I knew that $18M was coming right back in taxes. Let's call it the "top 1%" tax. I know that if I ever got to that point of income (which I likely won't) then I'd be so fortunate that I'd be happy to pay that tax. Perhaps "happy" is the wrong word, but I'd certainly feel obligated and feel that it was the RIGHT thing to do.
I think we forget that income tax was originally invented to tax EXCESS wealth, not regular people's income. When people in this country realize that the squeeze on the middle class is real, and that they are paying more of their income on taxes than they were in years prior when compared to the wealthy, maybe eventually they'll stop voting for tax cuts they'll never benefit from.
Hell, I'm not even *in* the middle class (I likely earn too much) and I'm still very angry about the situation. I wonder when people will actually "vote for change".