Taking a peak at Greg Mankiw's blog - there's a very interesting post about tax justice. What is a fair system? Of course, this argument leads to two different questions: 1) what is the level of services that the government should provide and hence the amount of revenue it needs to collect from its citizens and 2) how should that money be collected and from which parts of society.
I don't have too much new to say about the first issue (I'm right of center so I believe in smaller government), but the second question brings up some interesting philosophical questions. I do believe the rich should pay more taxes, but I'm very doubtful that our current progressive system is doing this appropriately. One benefit of a simpler tax code would be a more transparent understanding of how the tax burden varies across individuals. Going back to Roman history, public officials would pay with personal funds for the building of common spaces, roads, gladiatorial games, and even food for the masses. While individuals amassed personal wealth, giving it to the Roman people was a common act and those individuals directly funded activities that we now think of as governmental responsibilities. Additionally, these "donations" were pointedly for Roman citizens (for example, Julius Caesar's will gave every Roman citizen money from his personal wealth). Rich people today (for example Bill Gates) focus on global philanthropy, which is not a bad thing at all. Given our deficits, I don't think any US citizen would mind if he left a little donation to our government though.
1 comment:
That's really interesting about the Romans (as usual). When and why do you think that sense of 'civic responsibility' -- contributing personal finances for the common good -- came to an end?
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