Hahahahhaha lost a $128 ticket

[Don Perignom]

I also seem to recall the when the highest tax bracket was higher in terms of % then the US was measurably better off.

That would be the period from 1951 to 1963 when the top rate was either 91 or 92%.

Basically, the highest economic growth period was the Gilded Age, and we've been downhill since then. So yes, the high-tax 1950s were statistically a little "better" than today, but you have to ignore that the best growth occurred earlier when income tax was zero.

And you have to ignore that the economy is more complex than just one variable.

Here's a typical chart that a statist would consider supportive of high taxes:



Trend line would be down slightly from left to right. Notice the left side is much more volatile -- which is ignored because it's inconvenient to the statist argument. (But they dismiss the 19th century because it was volatile.)

It's really hard to find a very long-term chart because of measurement difficulties. Here's a site that computed an index:

https://5minuteeconomist.com/history...ilded-age.html



Other than the two 19th century wars, the trend line looks pretty solid until Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era.

At some point capitalism becomes another serfdom with some crazy ledger that is no longer serving people. It is kinda crazy to me how the system works and how it is sold. Trickle down and all that.

Capitalism is voluntary exchange (without interference). Big government is not capitalism. Our entire US history has been an accelerating abandonment of capitalism.

I have a strong libertarian streak in me but

Libertarian but with strong regulation, probably.