5 Reasons the Top Tax Rate Should Be 80 Percent

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3. 4. Progressive Taxes Actually Work

The prominent economic team of Piketty and Saez and Stantcheva determined that "the top tax rate could potentially be set as high as 83%" before the highest earners are discouraged from attempting to earn more. The National Bureau of Economic Research goes further, proposing a top marginal rate of 90%, and even some conservative analysts concede that the optimal maximum may be at least 50%.

Since the 1970s libertarians and business leaders have rallied behind trickle-down theory. Thus a series of tax cuts for the rich. But evidence from numerous sources leads to the conclusion that there is no correlation between tax cuts and GDP growth, and that in fact the cuts cause governments (as common sense would dictate) to lose revenue.

5. Higher Taxes Won't Make Rich People Leave

During the Republican debates Chris Christie claimed that higher taxes caused wealthy New Jersey residents to leave the state. It's not true. A Stanford study found that lower-income residents left New Jersey at approximately the same rate. "Overall," said the authors, "higher income earners show greater residential stability and geographic embeddedness than do low income earners."

A Conclusion: The Washington Examiner referred to Bernie Sanders as an "elderly extremist." Elderly, yes. But as Democratic debate moderators noted, over two-thirds of Americans favor increased taxes on people making over a million dollars. The desire to reduce inequality is not extreme at all.

Great article.