According to this new Gallup poll, more Americans think the taxes they have to pay are "about right" as opposed to being too low or too high. The only other time since 1956 that a plurality of Americans actually endorsed tax levels was in 2003 after two rounds of Bush tax cuts.What the Gallup chart omits, though, is what the the tax levels actually were. Here's a chart of the actual changes in tax levels from 1960 to 2004.It doesn't look to me like there's much of a correlation between what people think of tax fairness and the actual taxes they're paying. The late 1970s and early 1980s, for example, saw huge changes in taxes and very low changes in people's opinions about taxes. I think what these public opinion polls tell you is more the effect of political rhetoric about taxes. Lots of people thought taxes were too high in the Bush years, for example, when the administration was harping on about high taxes.For my part, I like the idea of a really strong public education system, think dynastic wealth isn't super fair, and don't buy into trickle-down theories, so I'd like taxes to be closer to 1960s levels.
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