It's actually interesting to look at the history of the income tax in the United States. The highest marginal income tax rate was at a crazy amount (> 70% !!!!!) during wartime in the 1910s and 1940s, corresponding with the strong-regulation Progressive era, and then New Deal policies. These were times of rapidly falling income inequality and rising standards of living, eventually leading to 1950s prosperity. Always good remembering the context in which we live in, and it can help us figure out what we can do to face our problems today.

https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/historical-highes...