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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated

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To: KLP who wrote (117023)	5/29/2005 7:57:06 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) of 793718

Karen, I'm sure you understand you can't make an income tax policy on the basis of increasing the taxes for the over $400k crowd. Doesn't generate enough revenue. You have to do it for fairness reasons but the revenue isn't enormous. The revenue pot lies in the middle. As for whether to favor a flat tax or not, I try to think about taxes in two dimensions: fairness arguments and efficacy arguments. On the first count, I think it's fair to tax people with higher incomes at a higher rate because they derive disproportionate benefits, a standard argument for a progressive income tax. On the efficacy counts, it's terribly difficult. What changes to the tax codes would lead to more efficiency in tax collection, better economic growth in directions the general polity wishes it to grow, etc. At the moment, for instance, the general polity seems to dramatically favor policies which encourage home ownership. Is that a good? Is that an economic good? Is it a good that should be favored by an economic policy? I don't know the answer to those questions on efficacy grounds. But they can't be defended on fairness grounds without admitting that it treats renters unfairly.

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