Part of this had to do with the higher taxes levied on the upper classes; in the United States, the top marginal tax rate hovered around 90 per cent during the 1940s and 1950s. (Today, politicians like to claim that higher taxes will slow down the economy, yet historical data shows that the US enjoyed some of its highest rates of growth during the period of 90 per cent tax.) But it also had to do with higher wages commanded by workers who were increasingly empowered – through unions – to bargain for a fairer share of profits. During the 1940s and 1950s, around 35 per cent of workers in the
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