"Taxing the rich to fund social services is, indeed, not a new idea: It's been around since the Civil War, when President Lincoln signed a bill taxing the better-off to pay the Northern efforts in the war. The bill exempted all income of less than what would be $16,000 today, and had a graduated scale: The highest rate, 5 percent, was on incomes of more than $10,000 ( equivalent in purchasing power to about $250,000 today)."
"By 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, the highest earners were paying a marginal tax rate of 63 percent. Those taxes on the rich funded the New Deal. During World War Two, the top marginal rate was as high as 94 percent, and it stayed at 91 percent until 1963 (under those socialist radicals Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower). That helped build a modern infrastructure for the US-and created a stable middle class."
Labor groups have circulated an initiative proposing a one-time 5 percent tax on fortunes above $1 billion, which could raise as much as $100 billion. Media coverage often emphasizes wealthy individuals leaving the state to avoid the levy. Taxing the wealthy has historical precedent: federal measures in the Civil War taxed higher incomes while exempting lower incomes. By 1932 top marginal rates reached 63 percent, funding New Deal programs. During World War II the top rate rose to as high as 94 percent and remained about 91 percent into the early 1960s, contributing to infrastructure development and a stable middle class.
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