The highest rates most of us can remember were during World War II. In 1944 the rate was 94% on the last taxable dollar of income. Business prospered in spite of that rate. Millionaires were made in the manufacturing of war time goods. In spite of that high rate, the 6% still allowed investment and the investors didn't quit producing. For those in that bracket, the 6% untaxed income far exceeded the average wage earners total income. In the years between 1944 and 1963 the rates remained at 90% and above. Farms got bigger and corporations continued to consolidate and the spread between the wealthy and the poor got wider. Rates gradually went down to 70% by 1980.

Then Reaganomics and the trickle down theory came along. Rates were lowered to the 50% maximum level and we went into deficit spending that exceeded the WW2 era. The spread between small business and large business grew wider. And, the rates have dropped steadily since and the deficits, except for a brief period in the Clinton years, have grown.

The disparity of income for the assembly line workers and management has gotten wider. The small family size businesses have all but disappeared. Income tax is not the primary cause of their disappearance!

What are some of the possibilities for the cause of our national economic failure? Well, for starters, we need to look at interstate and multinational banking. What has off shore corporate headquarters done for our tax revenues? What has deregulation and the gutting of anti trust laws done for us? What has our imported goods that don't have to meet the same standards as U.S. made goods done for us? What has NAFTA done for us? I'm not so sure that agreement hasn't contributed far more to the unemployment rate than the illegal immigration. At least the immigrants are spending a portion of their income here in the U.S. And, contrary to popular opinion, the majority of them are not on welfare!

And now for the nail that should seal the coffin on tax cuts to promote prosperity. Until unemployment comes down and livable wages become available, we will not have a turn around. Why would any manufacturer hire new employees with their tax savings? The problem is not being able to sell what is being produced now, at a profitable figure. What the tax savings in the higher brackets will be used for will be to buy or take over other businesses that are going under. Then they will wait until the economy is right, and they will be in a position to prosper on the labor of the working class people.