A 95 Percent Tax Rate?

Brad DeLong says in the Miami Herald that confiscating and redistributing 95 percent of the wealth generated by entrepreneurs would create “more happiness and opportunity.” Does that mean he wants a 95 percent top rate for the income tax? A top rate of 95 percent for the death tax? Surely he does not really think tax rates should be that high, but his column certainly points in that direction: 

Within each country, the increase in inequality that we have seen in the past generation is predominantly a result of failures of social investment and changes in regulations and expectations. It has not been accompanied by any acceleration in the overall rate of economic growth. For the most part, it looks like these changes in economy and society have not resulted in more wealth, but only in an upward redistribution of wealth — a successful right-wing class war. This kind of inequality should be a source of concern. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer and the other millionaires and billionaires of Microsoft are brilliant, hardworking, entrepreneurial and justly wealthy. But only the first 5 percent of their wealth can be justified as an economic incentive to encourage entrepreneurship and enterprise. The next 95 percent would create much more happiness and opportunity if it were divided evenly among U.S. citizens or others than if they were to consume any portion of it. An unequal society cannot help but be an unjust society. The most important item that parents in any society try to buy is a head start for their children. And the wealthier they are, the bigger the head start. Societies that promise equality of opportunity thus cannot afford to allow inequality of outcomes to become too great.