Re: Income distribution

["John O'Donnell" <jackodonnell@xxxxxxx>]

"Harry L. Cook" wrote:

 I think that it is eminently true that we need economic theory and method.  It is just that at some point it seems me to be useful to get beyond theory and method in the abstract and apply it to some serious problem like income distribution. Unfortunately, if you get into almost any economic problem to find the causes you soon run into some institutional arrangement  created in some way through the use of political and/or  economic power and this situation is difficult to work neatly into theories, especially those that stick to economics.                         Harry

<<SNIP>>

Yes, there is and will be institutional reluctance to any change. However, overcoming that reluctance requires first placing a viable reason for a specific change into public discourse along with all the reasons and evidence, both empirical and logical, that supports the change. Only then can a change perceived as detrimental to some arouse sufficient impetus for trial.

Otherwise, the only option is to stealthily create change by becoming the power to implement change. One such change gaining strength within the U.S. is the national retail sales tax, a system as, or nearly as, economically disruptive as the present personal income tax.

[NOTE: While the corporate income tax does not cause economic growth as would a property tax, it is non disruptive  and does not interfere with production decisions as does a tax that resolves to a variable cost of production as do the personal income tax and the retail sales tax. A tax that resolves to a fixed cost of production actually encourages price reductions to increase sales and thereby reduce the per unit cost of the fixed cost of maintaining the production capacity. That is, a tax based on something other than production, such as time and asset value as is the case with property taxes.]

  -- jbod

  Tax Privilege, Not People
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