Things that made you Facepalm today (Political Version)

[Neveragain]

Exactly. The 1980s is when the top marginal tax rate started being slashed down to almost 1/3 of what it was in the 50s. THAT'S when income inequality took off in this country: when we started to abandon the idea of a truly progressive tax code. Also when the FTC, under Regan, decided that buying back your own stock was no longer corruption.

Those two things in tandem destroyed the incomes for the vast majority of this country.

Do you know why we didn't used to pay CEOs 450x what their lowest paid employees make? Because most of that income was taxed at 90%. There was no point. A company got far more value from their money spreading it around to more employees.


And until the 80s, they weren't allowed to buy their own stock back to artificially inflate its value. But suddenly they could. AND those capital gains were taxed at a lower rate than normal income in many cases.

So companies started paying their leadership mostly in equity. And that was further incentive to start pouring their profits back into their own stock, which, in turn, raised the wages for leadership. Add to that the fact that stockholders can sue if the company is failing to do all it can to maximize stock value and you have a major income inequality crisis decades in the making.

I wish you had shown the previous two decades as well- it makes it so clear how bad things are.

Also life tip to Rockstar: if you're arguing for policy changes supported by the BBB and opposed by labor unions and people who are actively trying to reverse income inequality... You're not on the side of this you think you are.

Kind of how if you're part of a party that's like 85% white and that is accused of disenfranchising minority communities by civil rights organizations and people of color, the vast majority of whom support the opposition party, you're not on the right side of history.

Ignoring NAFTA (1994/Clinton) and the repeal of Glass Steagall (1999/Clinton), which can be seen in the chart by the huge leaps in income difference, is about as dishonest as one can be.

Crime bill (1994/Clinton), welfare reform bill (1996/Clinton)

Who was the last president to give amnesty to illegal immigrants...Reagan.