The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. – F.A. Hayek
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Politics, Taxation on Sep 23rd, 2011
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 [...]
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 [...]
Posted in Taxation on Aug 17th, 2011
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 [...]
Posted in Behavior, Taxation, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Aug 17th, 2011
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 [...]
Posted in Taxation, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Aug 12th, 2011
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 [...]
Posted in Taxation on Aug 5th, 2011
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 [...]
Posted in Health Care, Taxation on Jun 25th, 2011
I just dug up a paper written by a colleague of mine before I arrived at U of R. Here is an excerpt from the abstract: This study assesses the consequences of altering the favorable tax treatment of health insurance, and addresses the question of why it seems so politically difficult to accomplish this type [...]
Posted in Taxation on Apr 28th, 2011
My students spent a careful 8 weeks studying FA Hayek’s Constitution of Liberty. What follows is their summary of his Chapter 20, where Hayek reflects upon the justification for Progressive taxation. The book is dense and not extremely well written, so I suspect you will benefit from the summary. Enjoy, I am sure the ancient [...]
President Obama has increasingly reminded us that tax rates were higher during the Clinton presidency and had little negative impact on the economy. For example, today’s top marginal federal income tax rate is 35% while under Clinton it was 39.6%. I’d also remind you that many more poor people paid federal income taxes under Clinton [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Politics, Taxation on Apr 26th, 2011
Reading through the comments on this post and this post by David Henderson I noticed several comments, including from David Cay Johnston, that assert that folks at the top of the socio-economic latter get the largest benefits from being part of an orderly civil society, while those at the bottom get the smallest benefit. This [...]
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