UC students against unfair policies

[Sarastro]

At no point have corporations (or wealthy individuals) routinely paid 90% tax rates, irrespective of what the top marginal rate was. 

World War II
Reductions in exemption levels meant that taxpayers with taxable incomes of only $500 faced a bottom tax rate of 23 percent, while taxpayers with incomes over $1 million faced a top rate of 94 percent.

Developments after World War II
Even so, however, the maximum tax rate in 1954 remained at 87 percent of taxable income.

U.S. Treasury - Fact Sheet on the History of the U.S. Tax System

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

French, German, Swedish (to pick three), and most other languages are of little practical value.

Small point perhaps, but if you're doing any business in the EU (still the world's largest economy if considered as a totality), French and German are of extreme practical value.

[Florestan]

Now, for more practical, English speaking people, it makes sense to learn Spanish and Mandarin, as those are the other two languages most widely spoken throughout the world.  (Cantonese will help in the business world going forward, too.)  French, German, Swedish (to pick three), and most other languages are of little practical value.  Dead languages like Latin and ancient Greek are of value only to a very small group of academics.  There's no reason for anyone else to study them at all.  One can certainly wax poetic about the great cultural knowledge one gains – not to mention the great, almost religious benefits of being able to read a great classic in the original – from speaking so many tongues, but I'm afraid such talk is exaggerated gobbledygook. 

I'm not sure if you really mean that or you just like to push Toucan's buttons.

[Todd]

U.S. Treasury - Fact Sheet on the History of the U.S. Tax System

You need to look beyond fact sheets.  The prior top marginal rate of 90%+ does not mean that businesses or individuals routinely paid that rate.  The part you're missing are the extensive loopholes that existed, as well as the tax avoidance and tax evasion strategies that were employed when rates were that high.  Confiscatory tax rates do not yield the tax revenues their supporters claim.  (This is not a defense of Laffer Curve style thinking, though.)  I recommend you do some in-depth reading - not something you can copy and paste online - in public finance and economic history.

Small point perhaps, but if you're doing any business in the EU (still the world's largest economy if considered as a totality), French and German are of extreme practical value.

To the second point, it's usually quite easy to get business done with English only.  It may be Euro-English, but it works.  Knowing French and/or German could be helpful, but not necessarily critical, at least when working with the largest firms from those countries.  To the first point, the EU as a whole is indeed the largest economy for the time being, though that oversimplifies a more complex reality.  And if demographic and economic trends of the last couple decades continue in even modified form, the EU will slip to fourth largest economy by the final third of the century, if not sooner.  Enjoy it while you can Europeans.

I'm not sure if you really mean that or you just like to push Toucan's buttons.

I'll leave you guessing.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

On the subject of education, and where your money'$ going - an account of what it's like to teach at the American University of Iraq:

http://www.alternet.org/world/148443/i_was_a_professor_at_the_horribly_corrupt_american_university_of_iraq..._until_the_neocons_fired_me