Finally got around to reading Zucman’s/Saez’s book on American historical taxation (taxjusticenow.org/#/), which had some of the best chart game of any book I’ve ever read. A sampling:
The share of national income earned by the top 1% vs. bottom 50%, 1978-2018: 
The average U.S. tax rates by income group, 2018:
The average U.S. tax rates by income group, broken down by types of taxes paid, 2018:
The average U.S. tax rates of the bottom 50% vs. the 400 wealthiest Americans, 1960-2018:
The average U.S. tax rates of the bottom 90% vs. the top 0.1%, 1910-2018:
The average U.S. tax rate of the top 0.1%, broken down by type of taxes, 1910-2018:
The remarkable rise in tax evasion among America’s wealthiest, 1973 vs. 2018:
The growing, growing, growing percentage of paper profits U.S. multinationals have moved into tax havens, 1965-2018:
The evolution of U.S. tax rates on capital vs. labor, 1915-2018:
The shares of total U.S. household wealth owned by the top 1% vs. the bottom 90%, 1910-2018:
The incredible rise in global multinational profits booked outside of the countries in which they’re headquartered, 1930-2019:
The U.S. capital income tax rates vs. U.S. savings rates (“taxing capital does not seem to reduce saving”), 1915-2018:
Other nuggets from Zucman’s/Saez’s book on American historical taxation:
—"In 2018, following the Trump tax reform, and for the first time in the last hundred years, billionaires have paid less than steel workers, schoolteachers, and retirees."
—"In 2018, following the Trump tax reform, and for the first time in the last hundred years, billionaires have paid less than steel workers, schoolteachers, and retirees."
—Under Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower, the U.S. was "a beacon of tax justice.... The United States was the democracy with perhaps the most steeply progressive system of taxation on the planet."
—The collapse in audits of the largest estate tax returns has been spectacular: "In 1975, the IRS audited 65% of the 29,000 largest estate tax returns filed in 1974. By 2018, only 8.6% of the 34,000 estate tax returns filed in 2017 were examined."
—There was one year in American history when corporate income tax returns were made public: 1909, the year the corporate income tax was created. (Public disclosure was immediately repealed in 1910, and has remained private ever since.)
—The US's "decline in the tax-to-GDP ratio of almost four percentage points over the course of two decades is an exceptional historical development... The US over the last twenty years is the first example of a large and sustained decline in the tax take in a developed country."
—"Over the last decade, the IRS budget has decreased by over 20% adjusted for inflation.... The last time [the IRS] had fewer than 10,000 auditors [as we do now] was in the mid-1950s, when the US population was half what it is today."
"What do we want?"
"Eisenhower-era top marginal tax and corporate tax rates, trans-national financial information-sharing agreements, and increased IRS resources and enforcement!"
"When do we want it?"
"The next legislative session!"
(Not an actual quote from the book.)
"Eisenhower-era top marginal tax and corporate tax rates, trans-national financial information-sharing agreements, and increased IRS resources and enforcement!"
"When do we want it?"
"The next legislative session!"
(Not an actual quote from the book.)
