[alnayyir]

>and the middle class? What middle class?

I'm the type to prefer the government stay out of my money and personal business, but let's get real here. The greatest expansion of the middle class in American history (late 1950s) occurred at a time when the top tax bracket was 90%.

They just knew better than to blow all the money like California did :P

[dantheman]

The expansion of the middle class has nothing to do with the top tax bracket. It has to do with industrialization before automation (lots of low/medium skill jobs that provided significant value), and the destruction of competition around the world.

[alnayyir]

Speaking more seriously, I'm pretty certain the expansion of the middle class was due to strong white labor unions and Fordism as a cultural subtype within Modernism.

This entailed many things, with which the top tax bracket had little to no relevance.