Not how tax brackets work. Your first $2,000 was taxed at 20%, and then the rate graduated with the income, each rate is applied only to the marginal income in that bracket. The $150,001 dollar you earned would be taxed at 90% up to the next bracket. Everything you claimed as adjusted gross income over $200,000 was taxed at 91%. As mentioned by others, people utilized tax shelters and tax free investments to get around these taxes. Effective marginal tax rates on income over $200,000 wasn’t half of the actual rate.
Thanks. Taxes were not applied to total income, as you stated. No one would work by those measures.