[PEN-L:33220] Re: Bush Administration On The Poor: Pay More Taxes!

[andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Marx' argument is ambiguous, but Ellen' seems to
presuppose two thinhgs that are not so: (1) that
exploitation is a matter of not getting what you
deserve, and (2) that the only argument for
progressive taxation is based on desert.

As to (2), a more standard economic argument for
progressive taxation refers to what economists called
declining marginal returns, in English, the fact that
the more you have, the less every additional increment
means to you. For a lawyer who makes $150K, another
dollar means very little; to a janitor who makes $15K,
it means a lot. So regardless of whether the lawyer
doesn't "deserve" his loot, it makes sense to tax him
at a higher rate than the janitor.

As to (1), exploitation is surely a matter of wrongful
taking-advantage-of, but that does not necessarily
mean that you get what you deserve if you are not
wrongly taken advantage if. You might reject the
notion of desert altogether, as utilitarians do. Yoy
might, like Marx, reject the boader notion of justice
or rights altogether. In those case you'd needsome
other basis for saying that the advantage-taking was
wrong. Marx's basis seems to be that certain
arrangement that allow some to take advantage of
others unnecessaily restrict the freedom of those
taken-advantage-of.

Btw, the desert idea plays two ways in the
exploitation context. Libertarians and many ordinary
conservativces think progressive taxation is
exploitative because it takes from the rich what they
rich deserve and gives to the poor what they don't
deserve.

jks

--- "Max B. Sawicky" <sawicky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Taxes should be based on ability to pay,
> aside from the payroll tax, which is a
> contribution towards insurance benefits.
>
> The alternative is taxes NOT based on the
> ability to pay.  Try defending that one.
>
> mbs
>
>
>
>
>  How does
> one even begin to contrive an argument for
> progressive
> taxes without first arguing that the rich get more
> and the
> working classes less than they "deserve"  -- i.,e,
> that our
> economic system is exploitative.  Can you hear the
> Democrats making this argument in public?  I can't.
> It's hard to talk about redistribution without
> talking about
> exploitation.
>
> Ellen Frank
>


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