interesting article on tax rates.
This is something I've thought about, but never really done any research on.
The times when we had the most growth and prosperity across the board in our country was when tax rates were higher. During the 50's and then during Clinton. I think this is an interesting read.
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/10697 ... age=entire
The times when we had the most growth and prosperity across the board in our country was when tax rates were higher. During the 50's and then during Clinton. I think this is an interesting read.
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/10697 ... age=entire
Comments
Here's the thing about that though, is that you say it prospered in spite of all of these things that economists tell us are always bad for the economy. That really doesn't make sense. It was the high taxes that allowed us to invest into our infrastructure for so long, which then helped with prosperity of the whole country. Conservative economics tells us that high taxes and lack of competition make the economy suck. And therefore it should've. I have a hard time believing that our economy would've been EVEN BETTER had we not had those things in place.
What about us doing better economically during Clinton, post Reagan? Granted, Clinton carried on a lot of Reagan-era economic policies, but he did raise taxes and he balanced the budget and we had a very good economy. Then when we had banking deregulation and taxes lowered, we had bubble and crash, with no infrastructure improvements to show for it.
It sounds very counter intuitive, but perhaps fiscal conservatives are nearly as wrong as social conservatives... You can definitely argue the massive tax breaks on capital gains have not help matters. I'm going to need to think on this a little more.
That is of course one of the main problems with our banking collapse right now is that financial institutions traded good long term stability for short term high risk gains. Is this a way to force execs to run a business in such a way to where the long term steady growth and value of the company is paramount to short term bonuses and gains?
I've been thinking on this for the last couple of days. It's a very interesting idea.
* This was largely true of all corporations in the last 25 years.
I know individual savings are also way down from where they were since 1980. Can't remember the source offhand, but personal savings for individuals in 1980 was around 10% annually. Now, on average people save -.5% of what they earn.
Becaus everyone must have the lastest gee-whiz gizmo and 60" Plasma TV, and $40K upgrade package(granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, jumbo washer/dryer), etc... Back in 1980 people lived frugally and more happy.
Sometimes, we like to exaggerate how wonderful another era was in comparison to our own times.