Can anyone point me to some general resources/quotes regarding how taxes disproportionately hurt the poor?
Thanks.
I'm not 100% sure that this is always true.
If I am taxed £1000, and ten poor people are given £90 each (£100 is lost to administration), I would argue that they have each benefited due to taxation.
The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can't tolerate a libertarian community.
That is not necessarily truth.The argument against taxes is not that they can't benefit anybody, but that any benefit they might produce for someone is always at expenses of someone else.
Thedesolateone:I'm not 100% sure that this is always true. If I am taxed £1000, and ten poor people are given £90 each (£100 is lost to administration), I would argue that they have each benefited due to taxation
If I am taxed £1000, and ten poor people are given £90 each (£100 is lost to administration), I would argue that they have each benefited due to taxation
The poor may benefit in the short-run, but the long-run effects of taxing the wealthy to give to the poor are said to be negative.
Consider: A greedy capitalist pig is taxed $10,000,000 extra this year to provide a "tax-break" to the less wealthy (people like me). 100,000 people get a refund of $100 (I'm assuming no administrative overhead) from this. That $100 dollars in my hands isn't very useful. I may pay some debt off, eat at a nice restaurant, etc. So will the others. Although 100,000 people can't do much with $100, there is a ton the capitalist could've done with $10,000,000. He could've purchased new capital for his own company, or invested it into other places in the economy--which becomes capital for other companies. Although I'm generalizing here, capital expansion tends to lead to more/higher paying jobs. $10,000,000 spread out over 100,000 people tends to increase consumption. As long as the greedy capitalist doesn't throw all his money at hookers and blow, the same amount will tend to increase production in the overall economy, and hence, jobs.
"Poor" people may benefit immediately from the wealth redistribution, but they benefit far more in the long run when jobs are easier to find and pay is higher. The opportunity cost of government redistribution is all the goods and services that could've been created from private sources in the market, like jobs. IMO, as much as like money, I'd rather let the greedy capitalist keep my hundred bucks.
@redibump: I'd say all taxes hurt the poor more. Even progressive income taxes that take more from the wealthy just make it that much more difficult for the wealthy to employ the poor. Wish I could recommend some literature to you , but I can't at the moment ...
Reisman has a good article on this:
http://mises.org/story/3087
Ludwig von Mises Institute | 518 West Magnolia Avenue | Auburn, Alabama 36832-4528
Phone: 334.321.2100 · Fax: 334.321.2119
contact@Mises.org | webmaster | AOL-IM MainMises
Mises.org sitemap