When the rich were taxed a lot, the US developed a middle class.
The rich pay a larger percentage of all income taxes than they did when the top rate was 91%.
So which do you prefer, a high rate or more dollars collected?
The rich have always been taxed a lot. However, when the tax rates were higher than they are now the relative government revenues were smaller. That is one of the main reasons why Kennedy changed it.
“Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased – not a reduced – flow of revenues to the federal government.”
– John F. Kennedy, Jan. 17, 1963, annual budget message to the Congress, fiscal year 1964
Taxation does not create prosperity for anybody. All it does is rob Americans of the money they earned.