You know just look at the top marginal tax rate, and you see it rises dramatically during times of stress, for example 1st world war depression and the second world war, its very low at the moment so expect it too rise as this economic crisis plays out.
Misthos, the posted tax rates were very high for a tiny percentage of the population. However, nobody in the highest tax brackets paid those rates. The average effective tax rate during that period were about 23%. There were lots and lots of tax loopholes to encourage people to work and produce. Nobody was willing to work and produce at a 9O+% tax rate. In the 1980's the deal Reagan struck was getting rid of almost all the tax loopholes in return for a lower posted marginal tax rate. If we were to raise tax rates today, the effect would be the same as in 1937 when FDR jacked up taxes to as high as 75% (if memory serves) with no tax loopholes. The economy immediately went into a depression. A depression within a depression. Tax loopholes were eventually crafted to encourage people to produce.
Wars are a different type of "time of stress" than the one we have now. Rising tax rates in the depression prevented economic growth and a severe tax hike in 1937 created a depression within a depression. I don't think working for the state for half the year is a "low" tax rate. Why does the state own half of my production? Am I a serf? I don't think so. If the government jacks up my tax rate, I'll just produce less and they'll have less to tax. We're headed in the same direction as the shitty economies of Europe - at best. Most of them have a lower tax rate than Nancy Pelosi and Harry have planned for us here.
People need so much more discretionary spending now a days. There are so many many industries and jobs tied to the discretionary spending, that the spending must be kept high.
It's not just taxes. It's the increase in the money supply without equivalent GDP growth. Which is a convenient way to buy votes and kick the can down the road for subsequent generations to deal with. Inflation and the debt generated from printed money is the piper that eventually must be paid. Think of some of the most sacrosanct left right issues- Womans right to choose what to do with her own body (abortion) The right to bear arms. But what is more fundamental than the right to have your "property" ie money that you trade your labor and skills for not squandered, stolen, or inflated away? Hardly mentioned. Plus personal choices. If you have no debt, save $ and invest you will always have a chance. But no guarantees. People dont want to hear that. They want to be retired on their yacht by age 40. Probably not going to happen unless they lived a spartan life and started from age 10 but its very difficult to go against the agents of social change.
It's a good bet that if you teleported 1950's America through time into the present day, those pesky 1950's Americans would probably taking all your jobs