It’s not so much the corporate tax rate that did it, it’s capital gains tax (and especially how it’s implemented) that’s the big problem.
The fact that capital gains isn’t treated as regular income tax creates all sorts of really bad incentives. It means that executives are generally primarily paid in stock which means they are incentivized to push the value of that stock up. And since everyone making those decisions are also primarily paid in stock they’ll authorize things like stock buybacks to boost their own personal wealth.
5 regulations I’d make to fix this problem.
No executives can be paid with equity.
The maximum salary can not be more than 10x the lowest salary in a company.
Tax capital gains as regular income.
Bring back the 90% top income tax bracket
Introduce a wealth tax. Perhaps 3% for a networth over 1 billion.
It’s not so much the corporate tax rate that did it, it’s capital gains tax (and especially how it’s implemented) that’s the big problem.
The fact that capital gains isn’t treated as regular income tax creates all sorts of really bad incentives. It means that executives are generally primarily paid in stock which means they are incentivized to push the value of that stock up. And since everyone making those decisions are also primarily paid in stock they’ll authorize things like stock buybacks to boost their own personal wealth.
5 regulations I’d make to fix this problem.
No executives can be paid with equity.
The maximum salary can not be more than 10x the lowest salary in a company.
Tax capital gains as regular income.
Bring back the 90% top income tax bracket
Introduce a wealth tax. Perhaps 3% for a networth over 1 billion.
100 percent for every dollar over a billion, at least for individuals. No single person needs that much wealth.
Has the way capital gains tax works changed over the years?
Not really, it’s mostly the rates that have changed. It used to be much higher.