Are Taxes in the U. S. Too High - A Picture Worth 10,000 words

Still Not Convinced, You Never Will Be

The refrain from Conservatives is that the U. S. cannot raise taxes, particularly on the wealthiest Americans because taxes are too high.

Well, compared to what?

Here is what they look like as a percent of GDP historically.  (Thanks as always to Paul Krugman)



Yes you are reading that correctly, the last time taxes were this low as a percent of National Income was about 1950.  And yes, you are reading that correctly.  In the 1990-2000 decade, one of the highest decades of economic growth and expansion ever, job killing taxes were rising as a share of national income.

So if higher taxes than we have today are "job killers", the U. S. must have been killing jobs at a tremendous rate for the last 60 years.