The reason FDR raised the maximum rate to 91% was to defeat the the ability of the tax lawyers in the service of the rich to do what you see in those examples shown in my original message, which was to cut the rate at least in half. So even with the 91% rate the average tax paid by the top brackets was around 45%.
Today, with a 35% rate, some of the wealthiest corporations and individuals are paying zero tax -- and some are actually getting subsidies from you and me!
Hence you get rid of loopholes and make it unprofitable to hire tax attorneys by dropping the tax burden. Problem solved right there. Next?
The most significant examples of income redistribution in our history have been the massive "bailouts" of the banking and finance industries.
What you should understand is both socialism and laissez faire capitalism, by themselves, are bad systems. Our system has been a capitalist economy which, when functioning as it did between 1950 and 1980, is held in check by the socialist regulations and policies that Reagan, Bush-1, Clinton and Bush-2 removed. The effect of those deregulations has been the rise of laissez faire capitalism, the effect of which we are looking at today.
What? You don't think that's part of socialism? Government payouts to special interest groups, be they industry or the poor is social engineering. Both should be ended. We haven't had Lassaiez Faire capitalism since McKinley was president. Even then the end of that was written with the reforms of the Arthur administration and the passage of the Sherman Anti Trust Act.
That said, Lassaiez Faire capitalism would never allow bailouts because the government would let the industries thrive or fail on their own. Socialist economic theory gets tangled in when government tries to 'help' an industry or company. That is why your association with LF Capitalism and bailouts is false. LF Capitalism was completely dead by 1930 thanks to the work of Hoover and FDR except for some small isolated pockets. The instant the ICC could be used to cover any type of commerce even if it was subsistence farming, the Free Market ceased to be.
But nobody hear is arguing for Lassaiez Faire. We are arguing against Socialist economic theory as put forth by Keynes and his ilk because it has been a proven failure world wide for 100 years almost. You do realize that the 1970's was some of the worst economic times we had in between now and the great depression, right? And Carter was following Keynsian economics to the letter. The same policies used by FDR for 14 long years and Hoover for 4 years before him. If not for Reagan reversing that, we'd have been hurting for at least another decade before any turn-around had been done, if Carter had been given a chance to do what he really wanted and micromanage the entire economy from the oval office.
That is Glenn Beck propaganda. Read some of the history of the period in America known as the Gilded Age (which preceded and brought about the Great Depression) and you'll see how effective dependence on charity is. People were dying in the streets from hunger and sickness. Would you like to see that again in your country?
I have read about the Guilded Age and know quite a bit about it. In all actuality the Guilded age ended with J.J. Astor on the Titanic and the election of Wilson. Many great reforms came out of that period because of the destruction caused by the unbridled Industrial age. The Temperance movement had a great point but went to harm and many needed social reforms came out of it in the quality of life. Upton Sinclair and other muckrakers like Jakob Riis exposed the abuses and degradation of the industrial working class and tenement system. These are all good reforms. Even some of what Eugene V. Debs did was a good idea (except for the general strikes and pain he caused the average family through the railroad union agitation). The problem as I've often said is that they didn't stop when they should have. They kept on crusading like a parade that forgot where it was to end, and has gone on causing trouble ever since.
All that said, the chances of us reverting to the early industrial age abominations are slim to none.
Beck is not a defense. He is more often than not impeccably researched and well thought out when looking at history. His critics like you, won't believe of course, but when you look at his research honestly, it bears up the VAST majority of the time.
"Hating" the rich is more Glenn Beck propaganda and it is a truly dumb idea. There always have been rich people in America and no one pays any attention to them so long as the majority are getting along. But when some of the rich become the uber-rich while poverty increases exponentially at the lower income levels, wouldn't you say resentment is a natural consequence?
Just keep in mind that raising the upper tax level won't "hurt" the rich. It will just make them a little less rich. They will still have the best of everything and live better than the rest of us -- including you.
You need to listen to Beck's radio show sometime for yourself instead of quoting media mutters' lies. Obviously you've no idea what he talks about but get lots of half-assed false allegation. A little too concerned in the messenger than the message.
You make two wrong assumptions in these statements as well. First, that nobody pays attention to the rich if 'the majority is getting along'. The left and envy pimps always watch them like a hawk for any moment to exploit in which they can take a shot at their perceived enemies.
But you are right in one thing; A tax increase will not 'hurt' the Rich. In the short term it may not be the greatest for them but hurt? No no no. In the long term they'll hide their resources cut back and deny those who raised taxes access to their wealth like they would stopping a thief by moving their money out of the mattress to a bank vault. So, who do you hurt with the tax increases? The poor. Investment drops, work slows and jobs disappear. Tax revenues decrease legally, demand drops and charity dries up. This is what increasing taxes on the rich. If the bad tax policy goes on long enough or becomes worse, the rich pack up and leave denying ANY access to their wealth by putting themselves, smartly, out of range of the thieves who demand a right to their wealth.
You also make a third wrong assumption. I don't care that the rich live better than me, because their pleasant life does not change my circumstance one bit. I am not driven by jealousy and hate for others who have more or better than me, either through inheritance or achievement.