>>Call Ripley. We agree on something ...
Not sure why that's so surprising if we both rely on facts to form impressions.
IMHO the top tax rate above a threshold doesn't matter if everybody is affected the same way. Seems to me the big issue in the US is differential rates and far too many deductions. E.g. there's no good reason for a deduction for your mortgage: better to simplify and close any loopholes. As long as the tax code is not so Byzantine that the deviousness/price of the accountant you employ isn't the determining factor, the distortions and resentments can be kept at bay.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
