A few graphs to highlight my earlier post's points on economics:
US corporate tax rates from wiki:
US_Effective_Corporate_Tax_Rate_1947-2011_v2.jpg
Effective corporate tax rates have steadily dropped since WWII from a high of 50% to below 20% in the present day.
Highest marginal tax rates from google:
Just a reminder for people who aren't sure what marginal tax rates do: When you earn income it's broken into pieces for tax purposes, and the first 10k per year is taxed at 10%, the next 30k per year you earn is taxed at 12%, the next 45k you earn is taxed at 22%... above $520k per year the money is taxed at 37% currently. This is called "progressive taxation" or "marginal tax brackets", and it means that earning a higher salary never means you earn less total money even if it pushes you into the next tax bracket, because its only the money earned within a bracket that's taxed at that rate, not the whole salary. So the graph above is showing the marginal rate in the highest tax bracket - i.e. for really high earners what the highest part of their salary was being taxed at. Those are not at all the tax rates that were applying to ordinary people, or even the rates that were applying to the majority of the high-earner's salary.
The above graph shows that after WWII, the highest tax bracket was paying around 91%. Since then it has been repeatedly dropped, and now the highest earners pay less than 40% tax on the most-taxed part of their income.
US union membership from google:
union-density-fig.jpg
Since highs of over 30% in the post-WWII years, union membership has declined significantly to below 15% in the present day.
In summary: Across multiple metrics, the US was peak-left-wing on economic policy shortly after WWII. Since the 1970s, the US, under both parties, has become more right-wing economically. Modern leaders like Obama, Trump, Biden, are vastly more right-wing economically than those of the earlier period like FDR and JFK. On these kinds of graphs, the Biden administration is further to the right than Reagan. To suggest he is further left than JFK, as was done in this thread, is insane.
US corporate tax rates from wiki:
US_Effective_Corporate_Tax_Rate_1947-2011_v2.jpg
Effective corporate tax rates have steadily dropped since WWII from a high of 50% to below 20% in the present day.
Highest marginal tax rates from google:
Just a reminder for people who aren't sure what marginal tax rates do: When you earn income it's broken into pieces for tax purposes, and the first 10k per year is taxed at 10%, the next 30k per year you earn is taxed at 12%, the next 45k you earn is taxed at 22%... above $520k per year the money is taxed at 37% currently. This is called "progressive taxation" or "marginal tax brackets", and it means that earning a higher salary never means you earn less total money even if it pushes you into the next tax bracket, because its only the money earned within a bracket that's taxed at that rate, not the whole salary. So the graph above is showing the marginal rate in the highest tax bracket - i.e. for really high earners what the highest part of their salary was being taxed at. Those are not at all the tax rates that were applying to ordinary people, or even the rates that were applying to the majority of the high-earner's salary.
The above graph shows that after WWII, the highest tax bracket was paying around 91%. Since then it has been repeatedly dropped, and now the highest earners pay less than 40% tax on the most-taxed part of their income.
US union membership from google:
union-density-fig.jpg
Since highs of over 30% in the post-WWII years, union membership has declined significantly to below 15% in the present day.
In summary: Across multiple metrics, the US was peak-left-wing on economic policy shortly after WWII. Since the 1970s, the US, under both parties, has become more right-wing economically. Modern leaders like Obama, Trump, Biden, are vastly more right-wing economically than those of the earlier period like FDR and JFK. On these kinds of graphs, the Biden administration is further to the right than Reagan. To suggest he is further left than JFK, as was done in this thread, is insane.
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