Power and Market: Government and the Economy

C. Distribution of the Tax Burden

Up to this point, we have been discussing taxation as it is levied on any given individual or firm. Now we must turn to another aspect: the distribution of the burden of taxes among the people in the economy. Most of the search for “justice” in taxation has involved the problem of the “just distribution” of this burden.

Various proposed canons of justice will be discussed in this section, followed by analysis of the economic effects of tax distribution.