The wrong side of the curve

The UK discovers the Laffer Curve matters:

In the 2009-10 tax year, more than 16,000 people declared an annual income of
more than £1 million to HM Revenue and Customs. This number fell to just 6,000 after Gordon Brown introduced the new 50p top
rate of income tax shortly before the last general election. The figures have been seized upon by the Conservatives to claim that
increasing the highest rate of tax actually led to a loss in revenues for
the Government. It is believed that rich Britons moved abroad or took steps to avoid paying
the new levy by reducing their taxable incomes.

Anyone who believes in the myth of human progress has to have their faith shaken by the total inability of governments to grasp the concept of cause and effect despite literally thousands of years of historical evidence upon which to draw.