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I'm not sure I follow you. How can they eat the federal government's revenue by destroying income if it can't be deducted? Are you saying that the economic equ

• thaumasiotes 8y ago
  > How can they eat the federal government's revenue by destroying income if it can't be deducted? Because you can't collect taxes on income that doesn't exist, obviously. > Are you saying that the economic equilibrium of a higher income tax will be lower pre-tax incomes? That's certainly an interesting theory, though it doesn't comport with any of the empirical data. Yes, of course that's what I'm saying. This is the same idea as how taxing oil sales will necessarily lower the dollar volume of oil sales. What model are you aware of that doesn't directly imply this?
  • darawk 8y ago
    The model where the highest tax states have the highest incomes, and the lowest tax states have the lowest incomes. I.e. the one in which we actually live.
    • thaumasiotes 8y ago
      That model doesn't say anything about the effect of taxes. You can just as easily say that high incomes cause high taxes. Is that all the "empirical data" you were thinking of?
      • darawk 8y ago
        Did you have any you were thinking of? You're the one that made a specific claim - that taxes reduce pre-tax income levels. I see no evidence in support of that, and a lot of circumstantial evidence that cuts against it.