Like I said, no one who proposes higher taxes on the rich actually know their economic history. Since you obviously don’t know, it’s time for a history lesson.
Since you bring it up, let’s discuss the 1920s…
The federal income tax was created in 1913 with a tax rate of 7%, by the end of WW1 it was 77% for people making $1 million/year or more. To put that in perspective for you, that would be people making $150 million per year today, not even close to where you’re whining about. Treasury Secretary Mellon, then the 3rd highest income taxpayer in the US behind Ford and Rockefeller, said “The history of taxation shows that taxes which are inherently excessive are not paid. The high rates inevitably put pressure upon the taxpayer to withdraw his capital from productive business.” He proposed sweeping and drastic federal income tax reductions which got strong support from President Coolidge, who argued that “the wise and correct course to follow in taxation and all other economic legislation is not to destroy those who have already secured success but to create conditions under which every one will have a better chance to be successful.”
Wikipedia said:
The Mellon plan
Mellon came into office with a goal of reducing the huge federal debt from World War I. To do this, he needed to increase the federal revenue and cut spending. He believed that if the tax rates were too high, then the people would try to avoid paying them. He observed that as tax rates had increased during the first part of the 20th century, investors moved to avoid the highest rates—by choosing tax-free municipal bonds, for instance. As Mellon wrote in 1924:
“The history of taxation shows that taxes which are inherently excessive are not paid. The high rates inevitably put pressure upon the taxpayer to withdraw his capital from productive business.”
If the rates were set more reasonably, taxpayers would have less incentive to avoid paying. His controversial theory was that by lowering the tax rates across the board, he could increase the overall tax revenue.
Andrew Mellon’s plan had four main points:
1.Cut the top income tax rate from 73 to 24 percent
2.Cut taxes on low incomes from 4 to 1/2 percent
3.Reduce the Federal Estate tax
4.Efficiency in government
Mellon believed that the income tax should remain progressive, but with lower rates than those enacted during World War I. He thought that the top income earners would only willingly pay their taxes if rates were 25% or lower. Mellon proposed tax rate cuts, which Congress enacted in the Revenue Acts of 1921, 1924, and 1926. The top marginal tax rate was cut from 73% to 58% in 1922, 50% in 1923, 46% in 1924, 25% in 1925, and 24% in 1929. Rates in lower brackets were also cut substantially, relieving burdens on the middle-class, working-class, and poor households.
By 1926 65% of the income tax revenue came from incomes $300,000 and higher, when five years prior, less than 20% did. During this same period, the overall tax burden on those that earned less than $10,000 dropped from $155 million to $32.5 million.
Mellon’s policy reduced the public debt (largely inherited from World War I obligations) from almost $26 billion in 1921 to about $16 billion in 1930, but then the Depression caused it to rise again. By 1935, Franklin Roosevelt had gone back to high tax rates and wiped out Andrew Mellon’s initiatives. The top tax rate went to 80% by 1935 and the federal government increased excise taxes in an attempt to make up for the lost revenue.
Just so we’re clear on that last part, economists now believe, by a large majority, that FDR’s economic decisions doubled the length of the Great Depression. Part of that was the tax code changes he implemented. Actually most of it was but I also give credit to the fact that FDR was a colossal dumbass.
I’m going to stop right here and let you flounder around on the history you thought you knew. I’m perfectly fine with going back to the 1929 tax code, it reduced the burden on the poor, encouraged the rich to be more productive to society, and lowered the national debt. Problem is, it did those by doing the exact opposite of what you propose.