In Jim Cook's Archive

TAX AND SPEND

By James R. Cook

One of the presidential candidates wants to roll back the tax cut for the wealthy. Anyone who makes over $136,000 would feel the effect. They already pay most of the taxes. That a mainstream candidate could make such an economically unsound plan an important part of his platform boggles the mind. This is the worst kind of socialist nonsense. It implies that we are better off with the government spending the money we earn than saving or spending it ourselves.

Taxes are a penalty on progress. Ludwig von Mises summed it up nicely. “The philosophy underlying the system of progressive taxation is that the income and the wealth of the well-to-do classes can be freely tapped. What the advocates of these tax rates fail to realize is that the greater part of the incomes taxed away would not have been consumed but saved and invested. In fact, this fiscal policy does not only prevent the further accumulation of new capital. It brings about capital decumulation.”

Tax policies are just another reason why we are on the road to a crisis. Big government and a healthy economy don’t mix. Government will always need more until it has devoured the wealth of the people. Political candidates who advocate higher taxes only speed up the process.

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