Boo Radley
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BTW you missed some obvious proof-the luxury tax caused a major downturn in purchasing luxury items.
I have no evidence that was the cause. All factors have to be considered. But even at that, which I doubt, such is a different type of tax.
Spending on Luxury Goods
In the United States in 2007 luxury goods accounted for a $157 billion industry[1]. In the period between 1979-2003, household income grew 1% for the bottom fifth of households, 9% for the middle fifth, and 49% for the top fifth with household income more than doubling (up 111%) for the top 1%[2]. If the above trend had been reversed, there wouldn’t be nearly as many extravagant luxury items on the market such as $1 million cars and $45 million private jets. Even in such a slowing economy, there is still a big market to get consumers to spend their money on luxury items. The luxury goods market is a continually growing industry with marketers always trying to get consumers to spend their money on luxury goods.
(snip)
Spending dropped in 2008 as the result of consumer fears about the economy. Consumers saved instead of spending.[4]
Consumer spending - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Notice the last line offers another factor.