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I'm making two arguments. One is based on the economic concept of distortion - people making choices they wouldn't make absent the taxes. That's a strictly posi
by yummyfajitas 10y ago
I'm making two arguments. One is based on the economic concept of distortion - people making choices they wouldn't make absent the taxes. That's a strictly positive claim and it's not based on cost to collect.
The other is the normative one. My premise is that people should pay in proportion to the benefit they receive from society. Do you disagree with this claim?
- tptacek 10y agoI agree with your positive claim. Some tax systems are more distortionary than others. I think it's likely that consumption taxes are less distortionary than income taxes. I don't think I agree with your normative claim. I think ceteris paribus that it's a virtue of a tax system if people pay in proportion to the value they get out of society. It sounds like you think that virtue is controlling. I think there are other virtues as well.
- grinnbearit 10y agoPeople get value out of a society by consuming goods and services, income is how we as a society measure the value a person provides. Income Tax taxes value provided, Consumption Tax taxes value consumed. -- Consumption taxes can also be scaled/slabbed with the amount consumed, they don't have to be regressive.