A tax on university endowments and a tax on college tuition would seem to me to be pretty efficient and equitable taxes. On the equity side, the wealthiest people in America work for, have graduated from, attend and will attend universities – so it targets the 1% pretty well and almost all people in the top 20%. On the efficiency side, will colleges like MIT and Yale and Amherst pick up and leave just to avoid the tax?
I today stand united with everyone who stands strong in the effort to promote a more just society, and I begin by agreeing that taxing colleges and universities is a major step toward that goal.
How about starting by reducing/eliminating subsidies? Why begin by proposing a new layer of tax? Worse, taxing university endowments is a hop-skip-and-jump from a universal wealth tax. Perhaps we should chastise the original donors as foolish and persuade others to give elsewhere, but we ought steer far and wide of such dangerous attenuation of property rights.
Maybe this post was written sarcastically. We hear so much about how “we” should be taxing “the wealthy” in a “fair” way that promotes a “more just” society. What better way than to tax universities?
But we will likely never hear this argument at a dinner party, perhaps because so many of the elitists leading the charge to a utopia of equality are employed by or associated with Universities.
Tongue definitely in cheek, but I believe for consistency-sake the thought should be taken seriously.