Former German Finance minister Oskar Lafontaine, now a member of the Left Party, is calling for an 80% income tax for people earning more than €600,000 a year.
While a maximum marginal income tax rate of 91%, which persisted through much of the Eisenhower administration, and was lowered to 77% under Kennedy, is probably excessive, the explosion in executive pay, and the falling real wages for the rest of us , largely correspond with the maximum tax rate falling to 50% in 1980, and below 40% from 1987 on (link).
Higher marginal tax rates, with greater limits in deductions would go a long way to fixing much of what is wrong with the US economy.
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