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0 pointsska7y ago0 comments

I take your point, (and I'm not supporting parents contention) but it's worth recalling that under Eisenhower the highest progressive marginal tax rate was something like 90% - hardly anyone's idea of a communist state. Unsurprising as the two concepts are quite separable.

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5 comments · 2 top-level

ryanwaggoner7y ago· 2 in thread

Almost no one actually paid that though:

Between 1950 and 1959, he notes, the highest earning 1 percent of Americans paid an effective tax rate of 42 percent.

https://slate.com/business/2017/08/the-history-of-tax-rates-...

If UK had progressive property tax that only Duke of Westminster paid, it still would be massive gain for real estate affordability.

skaOP7y ago

Yes that's true (and expected, after all that's what the "progressive" part means).

Not supporting the silly 10 apartments thing.

I'm just pointing out that progressive taxation, even with very high top marginal rates, is not socialism - and we do ourselves a disservice when we pretend it is.

AdrianB17y ago· 1 in thread

So if you have on the flag more that one red star you are by definition excepted from communist or socialist measures? The world is more gray than black and white and USA has its share of socialism in it.

skaOP7y ago

Of course not, that's silly. So is the idea that progressive property tax (regardless of it's merit or lack thereof as an idea) is logically dismissed as a inevitable step towards eastern-block style communism.

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