Making the Rich Pay

The fiscal policy implemented by President Roosevelt between 1932 and 1945 aimed at creating a highly progressive tax system which specifically targeted the highest income brackets. However, the opposition of the business community and the 1937 economic downturn forced the President to abandon it. As a consequence, during the Second World War, the progressivity of the system applied more to the middle classes, even though the tax rates imposed on the richest Americans remained historically very high.