Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Competition, Corporatism, Taxation on Jan 29th, 2013
Ford, like Exxon, is enjoying monster profits right now. But of course there are no calls for “excess profits taxes” on them. I hereby propose one. Here is a nice bit from the news story: Ford will pay profit-sharing checks of about $8,300 to its 45,000 hourly workers in the U.S. represented by the United […]
Posted in If I Really Hated the Poor ..., Taxation on Jan 17th, 2013
JB asked in the comments to an earlier post what we know about who bears the burden of cigarette taxation. A brief exploration of the economic literature reveals the following: (1) The Heterogeneous Geographic and Socioeconomic Incidence of Cigarette Taxes: Evidence from Nielsen Homescan Data Author: Harding, Matthew; Leibtag, Ephraim; Lovenheim, Michael F. Author Affiliation: Stanford […]
Posted in Central Planning, Taxation on Jan 16th, 2013
… is government transportation and infrastructure policy. We’ll delve into that shortly. For now, here is a little more dog-bites-man: According to an analysis based on Census data by transportation specialist Ron Utt, nine of 10 Virginia commutes are by car and fewer than one in 20 by mass transit. Yet he calculates that about […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Taxation, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 24th, 2012
What would I like for Christmas? How about a little more intellectual consistency and honesty. We will keep our holiday observations short as we must get on with the serious Italian tradition of preparing out 7 fishes for Christmas Eve dinner. Please do share with me your tradition in the comments. In any case my […]
I think sincere members of both the left and the right dig their heels in regarding their preferred policies, or rather against their opponents proposed policies, because of a genuine worry that their opponents’ policies would backfire and produce bad results. There are of course a large number of conservatives and liberals who don’t give […]
Posted in Economics Problems, Inequality, labor markets, Taxation, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 19th, 2012
Earlier this Spring we examined how one aspect of our tax code (our current debates are like two people fighting over the last egg salad sandwich on the titanic) is anti-family and anti-women. For all of the rhetoric we hear out there about “equal pay for equal work” the idea that you can ever achieve […]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, If I Really Hated the Poor ..., Taxation on Dec 10th, 2012
I vomited after reading this morning’s paper. OK, the vomiting is from a concussion perhaps, or the flu, but the article comes in a close second. Yes, so no tax internet shopping harms some local retailers. The solution? Harm the internet retailers too. That’s government in one lesson. Hobble everyone. And then what do you […]
Posted in Education, Taxation, Voluntary Society, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 4th, 2012
Let’s make this short and sweet, but I think it is probably my most impassioned policy preference among the many that I hold. I, too, support raising taxes on “the rich.” I’ll repeat it, I support raising taxes on the rich. And I support that tax at much lower levels of richness than even the President […]
Posted in Environment, Religion, Taxation, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 19th, 2012
I am sympathetic to the argument that the US government and state governments have in place various schemes to subsidize the oil and coal and gas industries. And I agree with the environmental community who wishes to see these subsidies, tax breaks, favorable regulations, etc. removed. But let me ask a question. The answer to […]
Posted in incentives, Taxation, Voluntary Society, Welfare State, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Oct 23rd, 2012
Here is yet one more illustration for why one might argue such: Because universities are non-profit institutions, wealthy boosters, alums, or corporations can write off 80% of the cost from income taxes when they purchase club seats and luxury suites. That was from the Economics of Intercollegiate Sports. Remember the wise Bastiat: “Government is the […]