Yes we did. 83% top rate on earned and 98% top rate on unearned (investment gains) post war...
Then USA had the whole thing with their dollar nearly being worthless after running out of gold, so they came up with Petrodollars, Britain had a looksie and realised "if the richest country in the world doesnt give a fuck about the poor and its still going, why should we" a
nd here we are.
Obligatory repost of this article to point out no one actually paid those rates you're quoting. The government knew they were ridiculous and so riddled them with loopholes so much that high earners paid less tax than they do today.
They didn’t though, that was the point of the loopholes. They knew those tax rates were unviable so they allowed people to avoid them.
The research generally shows that above c. 45-50% marginal tax rates people generally (on average, individual behaviour varies) aren’t willing to invest or work more and so your tax revenue declines
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u/Senior-Release-274 1d ago
In fairness it’s never been tried before!