Leftist idiot: Why It’s Absolutely Crazy That We Don’t Ask Millionaires to Pay More Taxes

This is just a stray, late-on-April 15 thought, but isn’t it kind of insane that we don’t ask millionaires to pay more in taxes? I mean, much, much more? Today, the top marginal income tax rate is 39.6 percent. Why not go to 50? Or higher? Some economists think we could go as high as almost 90 percent.

Leftist idiot: Why It’s Absolutely Crazy That We Don’t Ask Millionaires to Pay More Taxes 150415_%24BOX_RichPayUp.jpg.CROP.promo-mediumlarge

Leftist idiot: Why It’s Absolutely Crazy That We Don’t Ask Millionaires to Pay More Taxes 150415_%24BOX_RichPayUp.jpg.CROP.promo-mediumlarge

Obviously, this is not a politically viable idea. We live during a time in which a supposedly serious presidential candidate can propose eliminating all taxes on capital gains or inheritances with a straight face, as if supporting the Hilton and Walton families were an existential national concern. Even undoing the Bush tax cuts for roughly the top 1 percent of households took a herculean political effort on the part of President Obama and Senate Democrats. But just from the perspective of rational self-interest, it seems goofy that, somehow, soaking the rich is barely part of the national policy conversation (the largely unheralded efforts of the Congressional Progressive Caucus aside). At some point, the federal government is going to need more revenue in order to support the social welfare programs that the vast majority of Americans know and love. Obviously, not all of that money can come from inside the top 0.5 percent. But at least some of it can.

And it’s not at all clear that steeping the wealthy, so to speak, would significantly slow down the economy. I mean, it could. Maybe. Researchers generally do think that a major tax hike would be a sap on growth. But it’s a more complicated issue than many assume. Theoretically, there are at least two big, opposing forces at play. On one side, you have the so-called substitution effect, the idea that people work less when the IRS snatches more of their paycheck, because each hour of labor suddenly earns them less money, making it more attractive to spend time finally learning guitar or crafting bird houses or otherwise chasing their Zen. On the other side, you have the “income effect”—the idea that when taxes go up, some people might actually work harder and longer in order to maintain their standard of living.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/04/15/top_tax_rates_why_it_s_absolutely_crazy_that_we_don_t_ask_millionaires_to.html

Leftist idiot: Why It’s Absolutely Crazy That We Don’t Ask Millionaires to Pay More Taxes

Leftist idiot: Why It’s Absolutely Crazy That We Don’t Ask Millionaires to Pay More Taxes

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