Hauser’s Law
What happened? A major driver of this trend was the biggest tax cut in U.S. history. The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, proposed by Congressman Jack Kemp and signed into law by President Reagan, reduced federal tax revenues by more than 13 percent over four years. The act included across-the-board cuts to income taxes, including a 20 percentage
... See moreMatthew Desmond • Poverty, by America
A recent study found that the wealthiest 0.01% – those with more than $45 million in net wealth – evade 25% of all taxes they owe, compared to an average evasion across all income brackets of 2.8%.44 This may sound like data from a notoriously unequal country like the US, but these data are in fact from Scandinavia. In the US, researchers found tha
... See morePaul Behrens • The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Futures from the Frontiers of Climate Science
Since 1962, the effective tax rate for poor, working-class, and middle-class Americans has increased, while it has decreased for the top 10 percent of income earners, and particularly for the richest among us. This is absurd. We should bump up the top marginal tax rate—perhaps to 50 percent, as it was in 1986; or 70 percent, as it was in 1975—and e
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