Mark, I figure that along with the right to ownership of property, society has an responsibility to provide people born into poverty with a chance to succeed. I propose that by providing a good education and a safe environment to operate in, the American dream can live.
The second sentence doesn't follow from the first, if you are making an economic argument.
Education, streets, sewers, police, even defense, are improvements leading to a higher general price level and greater economic activity and prosperity, thus increasing the material well being of everyone. Sensible people support these things through taxation because it's in their interest to do so.
This is not an ethical argument although I expect most ethical people would agree with it.
(I'd go further and say, profligate spending, particularly in the area of post secondary education, will lead to even greater general well being. Have to be sensible though, can't pave the whole country, can't have prisons as a growth industry and for sure, can't have everyone a client to some social worker. Can't use up the whole GDP in taxes.... Can't have govt taking up so much space the new Carnegie can't/won't spend his money on libraries.)
I seem to support taxes, but find the current implementation disconcerting. The cost of collection, administrative overhead hurt efficency and competitiveness.
It's not the cost of collecting taxes that is really significant. It's what they tax: when they tax capital or the cost of operations (I include corporate tax here), they retard the rate of improvement/investment and ultimately lessen the amount of tax that could be collected from net income which most years would be increasing.
I personally think that taxes are not nearly as important an influence on our well being as inflation. In the past year I think the US money supply has increased by about 10% while the economy has stood still. I've not a clue how this might work out but I don't have a good feeling about it. |
