I favor a steeply progressive income tax, with a top marginal rate of ~70-80%.
Believe it or not, I would favor a low corporate tax rate, but would require corporations to pay for the benefits of incorporation and limited liability by requiring more transparency and would enforce a pay ratio so that the top earner in a corporation could not earn more than X times the pay of the lowest paid employee. I would also require profits to be divided up more equally between shareholders and employees.
If we want to encourage work and productivity over speculation (and I certainly do), we need to revise the tax system so that WORK is rewarded more than “investing.” Right now, the opposite is true, and we can see the results of that in our broken-down, bifurcated economy.
If we want to fix Social Security, remove the income cap on SS contributions, and means test. Yes, it’s “socialism,” but that’s the price we pay for living in a civilized society.
