And then taxed themselves like crazy, while building massive private and public infrastructure, and had decades of middle class income growth that was the envy of the world.
The “taxed themselves like crazy, while building massive private and public infrastructure, and had decades of middle class income growth” was mostly a combination of the Lost and Silent Generations; the “Greatest” started dismantling that when they became politically dominant and had completely wrecked it by the time the Boomers eclipsed them.
The silent generation came after the greatest generation, so I fail to see how they could dismantle it before the generation who enacted it was in power
While the marginal tax rate on the top bracket was very high, it applied to almost nobody, and the effective taxation yield rate of revenue to GDP was actually lower than it is today.
> decades of middle class income growth that was the envy of the world
Largely accomplished because the European post-war economy was damaged enough that the US could take over as the de facto imperial force of the world. It's not like it was due to anything that generation did; it was the global geopolitical landscape of the time, and not one we'd like to repeat.
>While the marginal tax rate on the top bracket was very high, it applied to almost nobody, and the effective taxation yield rate of revenue to GDP was actually lower than it is today.
First, it doesn't matter if it's one person, as it was in 1935, or 1000. The idea that a handful of people get to be hoarders makes the system untrustworthy.
Second, very high marginal tax rates incentivize spending money on deductible expenses rather than ones that aren't deductible. When it's a use it or lose it tax rate, and you don't think the government has the best ideas how to spend it, you can avoid the tax by taking your own risks with your own money. But the point is, again, you can't be a hoarder.
On the other hand, they also expanded into coastal regions and areas rife for economic development and secured first-mover advantages that will last for centuries.
