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12/18/2002 11:27:00 PM | Brad Plumer Taxation Vexation So in light of the upcoming debates on Bush's new tax reforms, I thought of something today that hopefully someone can gun down. I don't know if this has ever been brought up before (no doubt it has, and by someone with actual "knowledge" to boot! but i digress...). Is a progressive tax structure inherently more unstable? Let's say that 10 percent of Americans are paying 40 percent of the taxes (or however the numbers come out). Those ten percent presumably have their income closely tied to the fortunes of the economy-- in stocks, dividends, etc. Thus, their incomes fluctuate far more wildly than the other 90 percent, amount-wise. If the US goes into recession, Bill Gates' piggy bank takes a major dip-- somewhere in the billions, say, which makes a huge difference on what the government takes in. And that's just one person. So the more the government depends on the wealthy for taxes, the less dependable the government's income becomes. Is that actually true? Does it even make sense? Is there a way to counter this effect? Edit: Wow, I kind of feel like a dolt. Does anyone know of any good introductory books that will give me a nice in-depth discussion on how economics works? Length is no concern, so long as the pictures are pretty... perma link |
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