Monday, July 18, 2011

Unfiddlable

We’re against higher taxes not because you shouldn’t raise them in a recession but because you shouldn’t raise them EVER. This endless fiddling with the tax code is one of the major sources of economic uncertainty in the country and just leads to one party fiddling with the code to benefit their friends and preferred interests while they’re in power and vice versa. What’s worse is that allowing the government to perennially mess with it, in effect, necessitates, for appearances sake, a higher tax rate than would otherwise be required. A fairer, flatter, lower and consistent tax rate creates more revenue for individuals and the government via increased economic activity. We (the few, the proud, the rational) are against the Obama tax hikes because they will slow the economy and the net negative effect of a slower economy on government revenues is greater than the amount of extra money that might be garnered from higher rates.* Tax revenue soars when the economy is good. Lower, flatter, fairer, unfiddlable rates are good for the economy, whether we’re in recession or not.

So why if lower tax rates increases government revenue does the left stake they're credibility on this issue above all others? Their consuming obsession with fairness. They'd rather have their constituency make do with less than have a small minority do appreciably better. In numerical terms, if there were 10 people in the world they'd rather 9 have $1 and one have $2 than 9 have $2 and one have $100.

*And that my friends, summarized in a single concise statement, is what has been universally disparaged as voodoo economics in distinct contrast to the stonehenge economics practitioned by the Democrats which can be neatly summarized in their nothing short of pathological fallacy, more taxes equals more money.





M.D.T.