Excerpt: America’s top 1% enjoy a fifth of the economy’s income and pay nearly a third of its federal taxes. Many politicians think they should cough up much more. Zohran Mamdani, New York’s mayor, wants a new 2% city levy on incomes over $1m. Virginia, Rhode Island and Washington state are weighing up similar measures; Californians are likely this year to vote on a “one time” 5% levy on billionaires’ wealth. In Europe, too, there is a similar clamour to target the wealthy. France has seen a popular campaign for a wealth tax. And with Sir Keir Starmer weakened or doomed as prime minister, the left wing of Britain’s Labour Party may implement one of its own. The “Robin Hood” state, which takes from the rich to give to the poor, has obvious appeal. Governments across the developed world are strapped for cash. Budgets are burdened by legacy debts, ageing populations and the need to spend more on defence. But few politicians will countenance raising broad-based taxes at a time when voters, scarred by the high inflation of the early 2020s, are worried about affordability. Booming stockmarkets, meanwhile, have reinforced the idea that inequality is too high. And it always sounds good to say someone else will foot the bill.
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Only pining for the structural racism and sexism and so on is okay, pining for the tax system of the 1950s is “fringe” territory, I guess.
I have a theory that this decline of America began with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That’s when America started really being for “everyone” and not just white people. White people got upset they couldn’t bully minorities any more, and Republicans preyed upon that vitriol to get half of the country to vote for representatives that only serve the ruling class.
Add in no fault divorce and women owning property and being able to have a banking account, The Pill and access to abortion (what the cons call “on demand” which they think is a real slam but is really telling on themselves), is something that really drives a lot of conservatives crazy. Most of those things happened in the 70s.
Some of them definitely want to roll all of that back. They say so. They already did a body blow on abortion, that’s for sure.