----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 8:57
PM
Subject: Re: Income distribution
"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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