HOW high can taxes go? In 1944, the federal personal income tax rate reached 94 percent. You might expect that such a high rate would lead to economic disaster or class warfare — or both. But it didn’t. Despite it, people prospered back then, and at least in some respects, American society was harmonious.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/business/if-raising-top-tax-rates-encourage-charitable-giving.html?_r=1