Income inequality has also increased and the data showing just how much separates the rich from other Americans has also improved. The top 0.1 percent held about 7 percent of the wealth in the U.S. in the late 1970s, but by 2012, that group had 22 percent, according to research published by Zucman and his colleague Emmanuel Saez.
The trick for Democratic contenders is to be able to translate the popularity of taxing the rich into support for their means of doing it. Sixty-one percent of voters back Warren’s wealth tax and 50 percent approve of Sander’s estate tax expansion, according to a February poll by Morning Consult and Politico.
The taxes on the wealthy make for convenient campaign talking points, but rarely translate into actual legislation once in power, according to Mattie Duppler, a senior fellow at the right-leaning National Taxpayers Union. That’s another factor that may make wealthy donors comfortable contributing to candidates like Sanders and Warren.
Democrats, in 2013, ultimately made permanent many of the tax cuts Bush and Congress passed a decade earlier.
“Democrats talk a lot about raising taxes on the wealthy,” Duppler said. “But when it comes down to it, they rarely take the votes to make it the case.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.