The Sheer Idiocy Of Income Inequality Rhetoric

by Louis Woodhill - May 25th, 2011 - Forbes Magazine

Envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, but Progressives seem to believe that it is a virtue. How else to explain articles like “For Our Top 400 Taxpayers, A Near-Record Year“?

This report was cited approvingly by left-wing columnist Harold Meyerson in an article he published in the Washington Post on May 17. Here is a quote:

Well, America’s 400 wealthiest taxpayers certainly can (afford to pay more taxes). In 1955, according to the Campaign for America’s Future, the country’s 400 wealthiest taxpayers had an average income of $13.3 million (in 2008 dollars) and paid 51.2 percent of that in federal income taxes. In 2008, according to IRS calculations, they had an average income of $270.5 million and paid 18 percent of that in federal income taxes. And in 1955, by the way, we could afford to pave roads.

Envy appears to lead to idiocy. Meyerson doesn’t seem to realize that the facts that he cites so disapprovingly actually make the case for supply-side economics. They demonstrate that cutting tax rates increases both GDP and federal revenues.

The math comes out the same way every time. The above math only appears to give the advantage if you focus on the rates rather than the tax receipts. Total taxes received are 50% higher from the rich under low tax rates as opposed to high tax rates. Democrats are so stupid they just cannot deal with the consequences of high tax rates. They never seem to understand that high rates means less investment, a refusal to take risk, lower profits and thus less tax receipts . It is not complicated. So why are Democrats so consistently and repeatedly stupid that they NEVER understand this?