Sure the US has the highest marginal tax rates on the top decile but look who's second: basket case Italy.
And look who's lowest? Perhaps the consistently most prosperous nation in the world: Switzerland.
But note the Scandinavians: they tax their rich far less.
Also note that the six native English speaking countries have the highest marginal rates relative to top decile share of income. Only the Netherlands is as high any Anglo Saxon/Celtic nation. And of course the US is tops in this metric imposing the harshest taxes relative to top decile share in the OECD.
Why is the US so high in top decile income share ? Well when you remember that the US is the white hot center of global technological and business innovation and that the rewards for being number one in a field in the US dwarf those of any other nation it's not surprising income is both less equal and much higher on average than the rest of the OECD.
But remember that the income inequality argument is about two concerns:
1. Cosmic Justice or basic fairness or envy depending on your inclination. It's a belief that fabulous wealth shouldn't fall to so few for whatever reason.
2. The fear that concentrations of wealth will distort our republic's politics , turning it into an oligarchy.
As to issue one all I can say is that sin will always be with us and since I am convinced that there is no distribution of income that the levelers would deem fair I say why bother? Particularly when we already do more leveling with our tax code than any other nation.
On number 2 my reaction is that the US because of its immense scale, decentralization and the many non governmental loci of power is the country least susceptible to undermining by a rich oligarchy. Countries like Sweden, the UK and so on have a much greater history of oligarchic rule and yet they undertake far less leveling. Why aren't they worried while we are? I mean if they're so darn progressive?
More at the link.
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