I think economic research tends to point to rates above 50% or so being rather pointless, in the sense that they actually lose the government revenue. The only real point of them is to make people feel better.
Actually no, the point to high marginal rates is neither raising revenue or 'making people feel better', it is to try to reduce the power of the elite.
lol. It isn't, because it doesn't. The traditional elites were a lot more powerful back in those days than they are now - largely because they have the resources to game a complicated tax code.
The current tax code is incredibly complicated and full of loopholes.
My impression is in spite of this, it was even more complicated back in the day (see e.g. the
Tax Reform Act of 1986).