Opinion of the trickle down theory

[Ban my account ffs!]

Very negative... though I believe that in a situation where you have incredibly high top marginal tax rates... they can squelch economic growth unless the government is making the amount of investment into wealth generation that the people who earned the money would.  Like when the top rate went from 90% to 70% in the 1960s.. I don't think that was a bad thing.  I think we had very good economic growth in the 50s with high marginal rates because the government was making massive investments in defense and infrastructure (the interstate highways).  This massive growth of interstates as well as the government encouraged move to the 'burbs also put a massive demand on automobiles.  Between road construction, defense spending, and the conversion of efficient transit friendly, dense cities to inefficient, car dependent, low density cities caused major economic growth.  That had a lot to do with cheap, plentiful oil.  Now it's back to bite us in the ass.

But to push for historically low top tax rates for the rich when we're on the brink of fiscal insolvency and it has been widely proven that the rich are hoarding the wealth is stupid.  It's time for the rates to go back up.  If the private sector won't invest in the prosperity of all Americans, then the government will have to take the money and do it.