The super-rich should be taxed at the 90% marginal rate that they were during the Eisenhower years, according to a paper by two economists who have studied the impact of high taxes on the extremely wealthy. The current top tax rate is 39.6%. The economists, from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Bonn (Germany), say that despite the distortions that are created by tax loopholes,
"...a top marginal tax rate in the range of 90 percent would decrease both income and wealth inequality, bring in more money for the government and increase everyone’s well-being -- even those subject to the new, much higher income tax rate."As the linked article notes, the economists' paper looks only at income, and not wealth. Most super-rich derive their living from interest on investments which is taxed at a much lower rate.
It's been an article of faith among conservatives certainly since the time of St. Ronnie of Hollywood that reducing taxes on the wealthy increases economic growth -- i.e. supply side, or more accurately, trickle-down economics -- a "theory" that has proven only to increase income inequality between the very wealthy and the remainder of the population.
