From 2003 to 2013, the top marginal and capital gains tax rates were 35% and 15% respectively, and the top 0.01% of taxpayers faced an average tax rate of effectively 25%. The last time rates were that low was before WW2, leading up to a period we remember as the Great Depression. During the nation&#x27;s most prosperous decades, those rates were consistently above 40%, and leading up to them, ranged between 60% and 40%.<p>The issue isn&#x27;t that the mega-wealthy pay no taxes, but that the value of the taxable income of a handful of people vastly supersedes that of most of that of the rest of the population. In essence, lower tax rates didn&#x27;t fix anything about the economy unless you thought taxes were the problem and provided no overall boost to the economic security or general prosperity of the public.<p>So when GE Capital pays no corporate taxes and someone points that out, you&#x27;re likely to hear that they pay those taxes through the number of people they employ. This is deceptive, since a legitimate small business would be paying both taxes. That entities like GE Capital exist is the trope that you need to dispel. Or did those estate taxes not come from the earnings of mom and pop shop owners and people who put in their 40 quarters with a little wise investing?