The Unbroken Window

Continuing our slog through the minefield of the tax the rich meme – let us ask publicly: “dear class warriors, do you believe that the creation of jobs is a public good?” I suspect many will answer yes. Note that I ask this in the economic sense – meaning that when an employer hires a [...]

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Fans of taxation like the idea that the “rich” should pay more for the privilege of accessing public goods than the non-rich. Fine, cool, I get it. Then how come fans of progressive taxation don’t also promote laws that require discrimination in all prices according to income? I mean more than saying that the rich [...]

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Let’s recall the basic argument we are addressing: the reason the rich should pay more in taxes is that they were only able to earn their income by hiring people that went to (taxpayer funded) public schools, employ people who drove on (taxpayer funded) public roads and otherwise could not do what they do were [...]

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There’s no point in dancing around it. There is little economic justification for taxing the rich. People are envious of others. People seek ways to lower the status of others and raise the status of themselves (I suppose I do that too, I’m no saint). The reason to tax the rich is because”we” don’t like [...]

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I’ve finally tired of hearing poorly thought out arguments for why the rich should pay more in taxes than everyone else. So as to not make any one post run on too long, let’s do these as a series of short posts. Let me say at the outset that: I understand that nothing I will [...]

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Sorry to have been so silent on the recent Buffet Tax dustup. There’s lots to say but I am otherwise distracted. Here, David Henderson captures exactly why I am apoplectic about it, ignoring for the time being what anyone thinks about rates, justice, fairness – the fact of the matter is, there is an utter [...]

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I must be the only one. Our current mortgage is a 30-year fixed at 5%, what I viewed as extraordinarily cheap. However, today I can refinance into a 15-year mortgage at 3.6%. I would do that in a heartbeat – with almost the same mortgage payment I would be getting our home paid off in [...]

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We’ve run several pieces over the years highlighting the inconsistencies among the “Nudge” crowd. I probably unfairly bundle the “libertarian” paternalists with the more hard-core unapologetic paternalists, but these are matters of degree, not kind. The reason for my consternation is that I rarely (never in fact) see a consistent position among these behavioralists to [...]

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The most commonly used definition of what “sustainability” is comes from the Brundtland Report: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs Environmentalists use it. Corporations use it. Politicians use it. Few have any idea what it means. We’ll delve into those particulars later in [...]

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Eliminate all deductions and credits from the income tax, and move to a broad based, three rate structure. Eliminate the payroll tax on all wages below the top income Obamacare declares is eligible for subsidized insurance, and extend the payroll tax throughout the entire income range. Eliminate all capital gains taxes, estate taxes and corporate [...]

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