Posted on 10/09/2010 10:42:15 AM PDT by mainestategop
Im preparing to write an article about Liberal myths and lies concerning Bush Reagan and Obama and I keep coming back to this claim that liberals have been making on youtube and several other places that in the 1950s taxes on the wealthy were at an all time high and our economy was flurishing. Any old timers from that bygone era care to comment? Has anyone heard this?
Strictly speaking it was not a credit card because the balance on the card was due on receipt of the bill.
Visa and American Express did not show up until 1958, Master Card in 1966. So through most of the 50s they had a monopoly and momentum carried them through most of the 60s.
bump
Yes, American business was a juggernaut of ingenuity, an eager workforce and few regulations to hamper growth. Not to mention our manufacturing was leaving a war-devastated Europe and Asia in the dust because our infrastructure was intact, so people bought American. At the time, no amount of high tax could overcome our output. Now, things are very different and we have a smaller margin for error and fewer markets to conquer, IMHO.
We succeeded in spite of the high taxes.
Credit cards were invented in 1950. It all started when Frank X. McNamara and two of his friends went out to supper.
My parents had CC during that time however had money - I am guessing mas use of credit cards were as you described.
Also in the 50’s we had won WWI, WWI, Korea, and had no debt. The last balanced budget was signed by Johnson in 1965.
We had put men on the moon and, government was 1/3 the size and scope it is today. BUT, what did not exist in 1965 that has cost the huge increase in government.
The top two would be:
Welfare there was no free housing, food, medical, education, virtually nothing came from Federal government.
Kennedy’s immigration bill opening the country to vastly poor uneducated masses and living off the state.
Credit cards actually go back to the Knights Templar. Limited to trade merchants and travelers.
Also keep in mind until America was founded, there was no concept of a “middle class”. You either would be born into landownership or were a slave or surf to landowners.
The marginal rate was higher but it affected far fewer people. That’s because it started at something like $300,000 which is the equivalent of like $3 million today. So it only affected the truly rich. And they knew how to move their money around to avoid it anyway.
Ask the liberals you’re arguing with whether they’d be okay with having the highest bracket start at $3 million.
>> Ive always said that if people today had to revert to the standard of living of the 1950s there would be weeping & wailing & gnashing of teeth.<<
LOL Most of them would simply die off. We had to grow much of our own food, butcher our own animals and cook out own meals. There are a lot of people today who wouldnt know how to cook enough to stay alive. Especially in the winter. Can you imagine them having to put up anything to have through the winter?
There were more tax brackets and many more things were deductable...like credit card interest.
I'm not sure but I seem to remember someone telling me that back then most people didn't pay any income tax at all since the lowest rate didn't kick in until around $10K. Back then if you made $10K it was something. I think of the scene in the movie It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey is offered a job making $20K/year and he's in shock.
If the tax rate is 90% but nobody makes enough to pay it, it's not doing any economic damage. The problem comes as inflation kicks everyone's wages up but those tax brackets don't move with it. This is why inflation is such a stealth tax.
Is this true??? One more reason why I despise Hussain!!!. I just purchased a property back in 2007 with the intent of moving into it. As we all know housing and the economy tanked shortly after so I was out of work. Since I couldn't sell w/o a major loss and I was lucky enough to be able to rent it out, I've been able to hold onto it. Now you tell me that Hussain has screwed that idea!?! I tell you, I can't wait to see the kenyan wearing an orange jump suit and ankle bracelet picking up trash by the side of the road.
So I have read.
If I cant sell I will have to raise the rent to copensate.
Perhaps you can do the same.
I agree. That is what needs to be done.
Hemingway still paid through the nose. In his last weeks he was having delusions(?) about the Feds coming to get him.
The point is that the COUNTRY had the best economy in history, the 50’s being known by historians and economists as the golden age, the Middle Class was BORN, and even at 92% TMR, the rich did FINE. The TMR was in the 90’s from 1952-1963, mainly Eisenhower. FDR’s previous TMR was 94% at one time.
Those are easily verified facts which you should research to satisfy yourself.
Oh - and since BC/BS (employer supplied) was a NONPROFIT, it paid 100% of all claims from dollar one - there was no such thing as a copay.
Old timer here - born in 1945. When I was a kid our 4-family house was worth $10K (suburban eastern MA) my father made about $20K as a state highway tree surgeon (and he retired with a good pension & HC,) family of 4 groceries for the week (a station wagon full of bags) was about $25, a loaf of bread was (I think) 15-25cents, and I think a new car cost between $1-2K. Gas was 25 cents a gallon. Sorry, it’s not easy to remember that far back, but that’s pretty accurate for age around 10-12 (1955 or so.)
And the cars were nice looking, all steel, easy to work on, and lasted a lifetime.
BTW-our house and all the neighbors’ houses were huge. And we wanted for nothing. All bills were paid on time, and no loans were taken out.
I did.
here’s what I found.
Hauser’s”law” is as preposterous a misrepresentation as the infamous “Laffer Curve.” Conservatives have been trying to prove the “trickle down” and (tax cuts and subsidies will “stimulate”)”job creators” myths for far too long now, and in the face of logic and historic fact to the contrary in both cases.
Economists have been “laffing” at both pseudoeconomic theories since the Right Wing “Think Tanks” and conservative administration advisors *coughpropagandamills* released them in Right Wing publications like Murdoch’s wsj.
“...this is beyond awful. It confuses what may be a desire of the American people not to be taxed beyond 19.5% of GDP, under a variety of tax systems, with an unfounded claim that the American people could not be taxed at a higher rate (on GDP) than 19.5%.
Specifically, it ignores the base-broadening that has accompanied much of the reduction in the top marginal tax rate. It ignores the increasing contribution to revenues played by the payroll tax, which has nothing to do with the top marginal tax rate. It is not robust against the standard Laffer curve critique—it will eventually not hold up for a sufficiently low top marginal tax rate. And the list could be extended. These shortcomings are obvious to anyone who takes just a moment to consider the claim, and yet the Wall Street Journal publishes it. They have no one to blame but themselves for the low regard in which they are being held. “
http://www.angrybearblog.com/2010/11/hausers-law-is-extremely-misleading.html
http://seekingalpha.com/article/78256-lying-with-charts-wsj-edition
http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/andrew-samwick/329/beyond-awful-wall-street-journal
http://elidourado.com/blog/debunking-hausers-law/
I believe if you KEEP soaking the rich, eventually they will run out of ways to cheat the tax laws - or even better, JUST LEAVE ALTOGETHER and make room for businessmen who are honest and responsible. In fact, given the mess they’ve made of the American quality of life, we need to claw back as much as humanly possible by OUTLAWING and POLICING those tax havens. This GROSS inequality will eventually cause the noted behavior in other Banana Republics - violent revolt and lawless chaos.
Top 10% 55.0%
Top 5% 44.3%
Top 1% 28.1%
You have just identified why we now are an Oligarchy.
“Progressive” taxation...illustrated here...by you...is the ONLY means by which the very rich-who can buy anything they want otherwise-can buy a government. And We the People have sold it to them...and then wonder what happened to the Constitution.
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