Quote:
Originally Posted by Oberon
Horribly flawed attempt to make a political point using American TV shows
|
Ward Cleavers boss did not live down the street. "Fred Rutherford" was just Ward's co-worker and was not the CEO of their company.
As far as that old skool 90% tax rate goes. This explains it pretty well. It's from 1944 but still valid by the late '50's when the Beaver first made his appearance.
Quote:
...you could deduct business meals, all business travel, all forms of interest payments, and much more. You could even deduct spousal travel expenses on a business trip! (Why travel alone?) Companies could also "loan" or "provide" almost anything to an employee, from an apartment to standard benefits. It was possible to shelter tens of thousands of dollars from taxable income. Three-martini lunches and expense accounts were important realities, skewing tax calculations.
As a result of deductions and exclusions, even the theoretical maximum Real Rate of taxation at 60% in 1944 overstates taxation dramatically. The reality? On earned income, the richest U.S. taxpayers paid close to 40 percent of their earned incomes in taxes in 1944. We simply didn't count much of the compensation as taxable income.
|
http://almostclassical.blogspot.com/...rate-myth.html