I remember when I lived in New Mexico, the heir to the Revlon fortune bought a huge cattle ranch. People wondered how in the heck they made any money on it. It was a money hole from the get-go.
Reality was they didn't want to make any money. They wanted to lose money, lots of it.
That in turn translated to lower income and therefore a lower tax rate.
Wealthy people make enough money to have plenty of options to avoid paying the top rates. States that decide to tap into the wealthy's collective pockets for revenue, many times see their revenue go down because the wealthy are also not stupid. They move to another state where the taxes aren't so onerous. Duh!
It happened in France when that liberal predecessor to Macaroni man, Hollande, ratcheted-up the top rates to 75%. They had to rescind it because all of the smart wealthy residents moved to other countries to avoid the tax. It was a failure of the government "experts".
There are still plenty of loopholes in the US tax code so that if AOC gets her 70% rate or, heaven forbid, Castro gets his 90% rate, that the wealthy will do what they have always done.
They will figure out how to avoid the highest rates and the liberal government programs reliant on these high tax rates for their revenue will fall flat on their faces.
But like someone else on this thread commented, these liberals don't know the first thing about economics, or more important, human nature. People that can, will flee the high tax rates. Why would someone stand still while the government was trying to fleece them?
Nazi Germany required you to pay next year's taxes in full before they would allow you to emigrate.
Communist countries put up walls and/or shoot anyone attempting to flee. (Which is why we'll get a wall, either we'll build it to keep us safe, or the AOCs of the world will build one to keep us in!)
In the World Marxist Dream, there's no place on earth better to run to escape world misery.
This is how the galaxy will be colonized...
“There are still plenty of loopholes in the US tax code so that if AOC gets her 70% rate or, heaven forbid, Castro gets his 90% rate, that the wealthy will do what they have always done.”
The limousine liberals will simply shift their wealth to tax free foundations, just like the Kennedy’s, Bill Gates and the Clintons did. All other high income earners must pay up.