Since I'm only a guy who tries to make decisions on individual issues, unfortunately, I fall in neither the right wing or left wing camp, but as we proceed with our current presidential election, I find myself being attacked by right wing conservatives for some of my views.
In response to these said attacks, I raise this question. I'm waiting for someone with smarts to explain to me why my view when it comes to my America of the 1940s and the 1950s is wrong. What did we do wrong when, in 1941, after the military attack on Pearl Harbor, our country raised our federal income tax top bracket to 88% so that my America could afford to build up our military in order to fight the Nazis and their allies? As I understand it, our rich and wealthy American citizens wound up paying about 35% of their total earnings for federal taxes, our military became incredibly strong, we worked with our allies and were able to defeat the Nazis and their allies and, in the end, the rich and the wealthy remained rich and wealthy.
And what did we do wrong in 1954 when Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican president, succeeded in having our nation raise our top federal tax bracket to an even higher 91% so that he could make certain that our country could afford to repair where necessary and expand our national infrastructure of roads and bridges? As I understand it, once again, we saw only positive results from Eisenhower's move. His use of federal taxes to better our roads and bridges led to a creation of millions of jobs. The rich and wealthy among us perhaps paid 36% or 37% of their earnings for taxes but still remained rich and wealthy at that time. And best of all, the middle class found themselves doing so much better during those years than they had for decades before.
I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s, and at a time when our country truly lived as a community. If our families were not in the military at a time when better than 11% of Americans were fighting for us against the Nazis, they were volunteering in their communities to help keep us protected and to work on things like Victory Gardens (my dad did the latter) that helped America to have enough food for Americans at home and the American military abroad.
What's happening today? Less than 1% of Americans serve in the military so that unlike when I was a kid who saw that most families had a son, daughter, brother, sister or cousin who was serving, today, very few of us are connected to those who have put themselves on the line for us in Afghanistan and Iraq.
What's happening today? Too many of our fellow American citizens rant and rage against the idea of paying higher taxes in the way that we did in the 1940s and 1950s. And when our veterans return home with all kinds of medical and psychological issues, too many Americans feel that it's okay for those veterans to have to rely on private charities rather than on American taxpayers to help treat their problems.
Yep! I do have a problem with my America of today and I, frankly, am hoping that eventually, a vast majority of my fellow Americans will finally get it, will finally understand that to survive as a great nation, we have to act as a community and be there for each other in the same way that we were there for each other in 1941 and for close to two decades thereafter.
In response to these said attacks, I raise this question. I'm waiting for someone with smarts to explain to me why my view when it comes to my America of the 1940s and the 1950s is wrong. What did we do wrong when, in 1941, after the military attack on Pearl Harbor, our country raised our federal income tax top bracket to 88% so that my America could afford to build up our military in order to fight the Nazis and their allies? As I understand it, our rich and wealthy American citizens wound up paying about 35% of their total earnings for federal taxes, our military became incredibly strong, we worked with our allies and were able to defeat the Nazis and their allies and, in the end, the rich and the wealthy remained rich and wealthy.
And what did we do wrong in 1954 when Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican president, succeeded in having our nation raise our top federal tax bracket to an even higher 91% so that he could make certain that our country could afford to repair where necessary and expand our national infrastructure of roads and bridges? As I understand it, once again, we saw only positive results from Eisenhower's move. His use of federal taxes to better our roads and bridges led to a creation of millions of jobs. The rich and wealthy among us perhaps paid 36% or 37% of their earnings for taxes but still remained rich and wealthy at that time. And best of all, the middle class found themselves doing so much better during those years than they had for decades before.
I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s, and at a time when our country truly lived as a community. If our families were not in the military at a time when better than 11% of Americans were fighting for us against the Nazis, they were volunteering in their communities to help keep us protected and to work on things like Victory Gardens (my dad did the latter) that helped America to have enough food for Americans at home and the American military abroad.
What's happening today? Less than 1% of Americans serve in the military so that unlike when I was a kid who saw that most families had a son, daughter, brother, sister or cousin who was serving, today, very few of us are connected to those who have put themselves on the line for us in Afghanistan and Iraq.
What's happening today? Too many of our fellow American citizens rant and rage against the idea of paying higher taxes in the way that we did in the 1940s and 1950s. And when our veterans return home with all kinds of medical and psychological issues, too many Americans feel that it's okay for those veterans to have to rely on private charities rather than on American taxpayers to help treat their problems.
Yep! I do have a problem with my America of today and I, frankly, am hoping that eventually, a vast majority of my fellow Americans will finally get it, will finally understand that to survive as a great nation, we have to act as a community and be there for each other in the same way that we were there for each other in 1941 and for close to two decades thereafter.
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