Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Here's the thing with taxes: they are a method by which governments raise money, but that is really only part of it. On the most fundamental level taxes are a means of expressing policy. When something is favored-- home ownership, say, or health insurance-- a good tax code promotes that activity. When something is disfavored-- soft drinks or cigarettes or early withdrawals from retirement savings-- a good tax code operates to discourage that. Tax codes require adjustment because at some point they start to operate as less of a mechanism for policy expression and more of an end to themselves. From what I can see the Republican tax legislation that we are about to suffer has as its policy expression the idea that taxes are bad, and that the accumulation and retention of wealth by a small minority is good. This is, of course an outgrowth of the nihilistic belief that government is the ultimate bad, instead of the source of value in society.
// posted by Bill @ 11:02 AM 
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