Spur Economic Growth through higher taxes at the top?

1. 61

   Doug Hughesposted 14 years ago

   "...During the period 1951-63, when marginal rates were at their peak — 91 percent or 92 percent — the American economy boomed, growing at an average annual rate of 3.71 percent," he wrote in February. "The fact that the marginal rates were what would today be viewed as essentially confiscatory did not cause economic cataclysm — just the opposite. And during the past seven years, during which we reduced the top marginal rate to 35 percent, average growth was a more meager 1.71 percent."
   
   Months later, with USA Today reporting that tax rates are at a 60-year nadir, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Brookings Institution audience that "the rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing [major] employment issues ... whether it is individual, corporate, whatever the taxation forms are."
   
   A prime example is Greece. While conservatives say the debt-ridden nation is a victim of welfare-state profligacy, a Center for American Progress analysis shows that "Greece has consistently spent less" than Europe's other social democracies — most of which have avoided Greece's plight.
   
   "The real problem facing the Greeks is not how to reduce spending but how to increase revenue collections," the report concludes, fingering Greece's comparatively "anemic tax collections" as its economic problem.
   
   On the other hand, the opposite is also true — as Clinton noted, some high-tax, high-revenue nations are excelling.
   
   "Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western hemisphere," she pointed out. "And guess what? It's growing like crazy. The rich are getting richer, but they are pulling people out of poverty."
   
   This makes perfect sense. Though the Reagan zeitgeist created the illusion that taxes stunt economic growth, the numbers prove that higher marginal tax rates generate more resources for the job-creating, wage-generating public investments (roads, bridges, broadband, etc.) that sustain an economy. They also create economic incentives for economy-sustaining capital investment. Indeed, the easiest way wealthy business owners can avoid high-bracket tax rates is by plowing their profits back into their businesses and taking the corresponding write-off rather than simply pocketing the excess cash and paying an IRS levy..."
   
   by David Sirota from Salon
   http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/featu … index.html

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2. 69

   MikeNVposted 14 years ago

   Tax the "Rich" is always a popular platform, as long as you are not among them  And who is really?
   
   Last year the super rich got even richer.
   
   But no matter what "Solution" you come up with the "Rich" control the wealth and they will find a way around it.  Look at what WallStreet did... instead of cash compensation they simply shifted to stock and options.  Treasury Secretary Paulson got Bush to create a law so the Executive Branch appointees could dump their stock with NO TAX!  He got off with $700 million and paid ZERO tax on the windfall.
   
   Any tax increase proposals always end up hitting the middle and lower classes hardest.
   
   The rich will simply say ... gee we are paying 80% so why are you complaining about 50%?
   
   So it's a total dead end.
   
   That's why the "average guy" has but one option... to stand up and DEMAND the Government stop creating all their BS Programs and Stop spending so damn much.
   
   And the first place to start the spending cuts is with the Military which is bleeding America dry and stuffing the pockets a a few select people.
   
   Once again the Conservative Liberal argument FAILS.  The people running the show are in the GREEN party and will readily manipulate any party that the Public thinks is in Power.

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