>>27047912>What successes?A 94% tax rate on incomes above $150,000 (what I believe is about $300,000-350,000 in real wages today) was instrumental in pulling the US out of the great depression, for one very widely known example. Of course a world war helped as well (hence my comment about economists tendency to ignore spatio-temporal context when it comes to developing theories).
Of course I'm not going to point out Sweden, Finland, etc. -- notably because none of them have tax rates even approaching 90%.
>venezeula, argentina, brazilThree countries that were ravaged by US foreign policy and plundered for their natural resources by powers in the global north for centuries. It might also be worth noting all three of which have housed brutal, US-backed dictatorships within the past century, two of which as recently as the 80s.
>all terrible presidentsAll New Deal democrats are terrible presidents? Including FDR, a president so popular and successful that he managed to serve with popular support (for four terms) until he died? A president instrumental in ending the great depression? I'd love to hear how you believe he caused "nearly every shitstorm" (some examples, perhaps?) of the past 60 years.
>free marketsWhat do you mean by free markets? Moreover, you have to realize that the US is hardly a free market, right? Some of the US' biggest industries past and present (from textiles to aerospace, IT, hi-tech industry more generally, biomed, etc.) have received massive state subsidies or have grown only out of massive trade barriers with other countries (the same is true for nearly every superpower since the end of feudalism, it should be noted) -- nearly all of American technological developments were developed by taxpayer money in the state sector, whether in public universities, the military, etc. before being handed to private business. Most of America's largest industries would have failed if not for constant state intervention.
