By means of Google.com and from several sources using federal statistics, we put together a comparison of the rate of unemployment compared to the highest marginal rate of income taxes on married filing joint returns, showing every even year from 1948. The figures used are from Federal Bureau of Statistics.
Note that there seems to be little correlation between the marginal rate of taxation and unemployment. We suggest that greed spurs the well-to-do (whom Republicans refer to as “job creators”) just as much or just as little at 50% and even 70% as it does at today’s 35%. We know it did us!
| Year | Unemployment | Highest Marginal Tax Rate |
| 1948 | 3.8 | 91 |
| 1950 | 5.3 | 91 |
| 1952 | 3.0 | 92 |
| 1954 | 5.5 | 91 |
| 1956 | 4.1 | 89 |
| 1958 | 6.8 | 89 |
| 1960 | 5.5 | 89 |
| 1962 | 5.5 | 89 |
| 1964 | 5.2 | 76 |
| 1966 | 3.8 | 70 |
| 1968 | 3.6 | 70 |
| 1970 | 4.9 | 70 |
| 1972 | 5.6 | 70 |
| 1974 | 5.6 | 70 |
| 1976 | 7.7 | 70 |
| 1978 | 6.1 | 70 |
| 1980 | 7.1 | 70 |
| 1982 | 9.7 | 50 |
| 1984 | 7.5 | 50 |
| 1986 | 7.0 | 50 |
| 1988 | 5.5 | 28 |
| 1990 | 5.6 | 28 |
| 1992 | 7.5 | 42 |
| 1994 | 6.1 | 35 |
| 1996 | 5.4 | 35 |
| 1998 | 4.5 | 35 |
| 2000 | 4.0 | 35 |
| 2002 | 5.8 | 35 |
| 2004 | 5.5 | 35 |
| 2006 | 4.6 | 35 |
| 2008 | 5.8 | 35 |
| 2010 | 9.6 | 35 |
It is clear that there is no apparent correlation between marginal rate of interest and unemployment, that taxing the well-to-do does not inhibit job creation.
What we do know from other statistics is that a wildly disproportionate share of the nation’s wealth over the past thirty years has gone to the top one-percent of our population while the real earnings of the middle class families have hardly increased at all, despite longer hours and often a spouse in the job force.
Two things have occurred as a result: (1) The huge idle liquidity of banks, corporations and individuals and the lowest interest rates since the Great Depression and (2) inadequate consumer demand which means less opportunities for investment and fewer people at work.
Cutting government budgets by laying people off will only add to unemployment. Cutting back on social programs will worsen consumer demand. The best that may result from the ongoing high level discussions concerning the large “W” administration deficits is to ‘kick the can down the road’…appoint a committee to study balancing the budget and put off their report and implementation long enough to allow the economy to somewhat recover and thus reduce the unemployment rate.
Of course reducing the unemployment rate isn’t good politics for the Republicans. So we shall see how many lickspittles and how many statesmen we have around.
One more observation…since when is the pledge to the country that every elected official takes subordinated to the pledge they make to the tea party and right wing Republicans?
