Comments by "wvu05" (@wvu05) on "How Did America Become an Oligarchy? (Thom Hartmann Interview)" video.

@woodywood3388 Even getting rid of tax loopholes isn't enough. It can go a long way, but studies have shown that the optimal top marginal tax rate is 71%. I don't think it's a coincidence that the economy worked best for most people when the top tax bracket was never lower than 70%, and things took a turn when the top tax rate was never higher than 50%.
6
@lukestrehlau2823 Their anti-tax propaganda that convinced too many people who are not and never will be rich to not pay, which eroded the tax base to pay for schools. As wealth became concentrated, and they built up their property and gutted poor areas, there was less and less available for schools in poorer areas (I was born in 1979, and when I graduated high school, we still had computers that were made before I started kindergarten), which leads to more people leaving the poor areas, which brings down home prices, which makes education worse. It is a vicious cycle.
4