They make some questionable claims to advance their point:
The wheels are falling off of the new Saez-Zucman tax rate stats. That has not deterred Zucman from doubling down though. This is deeply unprofessional behavior from an economist at a top department. https://t.co/Lbc8DK3YZO— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) October 12, 2019
But even if we allow them to use their dodgy data, that the bottom 50% face a tax rate of 24.2%, while the top 400 have a tax rate of only 23.0%, the question must be asked, which they never do: Why can "justice" not be reached by lowering taxes on the bottom 50% rather than raising taxes on the top income earners?
The answer is because these are aggressive statists. The more money in the hands of government the better is their view. They hate capital accumulation by the wealthy---of any kind.
Indeed, Zucman has called for taxing private charities and philanthropic foundations, in addition to wealthy incomes.
Zucman and Saez are also the developers of Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax.
These guys are seriously bad news and this is what Krugman is promoting these days.
-RW
The answer is they are not only statists but the intellectual servants of the wealthy elite ruling class that control / influence the state. It is their job to convince the masses to tax people so heavily that class migration upward does not happen. To make sure the wealthy of today are on top forever. And by all means to prevent the regular people from building wealth generation to generation. Their job is to make sure those who earn their way are taxed back down.
ReplyDeleteAll the dodgy math and tricks are to avoid the fact that the 0.01% avoids taxes because they essentially control government and its policies. Whatever they pay in taxes they can get back and more through special deals, government contracts, etc. They benefit from central banking. An honest analysis would cause these economists to lose their careers.
Another analysis that is avoided is the net tax payer analysis. That is to chart the difference between taxes received and taxes paid. Or simply the tax receivers. The problem is that there enough rich who earn their way that it would obscure the vast amounts of taxes that go to the crony class.
The picture I would expect is of net tax receivers at the low and high income ends. And net tax payers spread across the income range but more numerous in the middle.
PS: Property and sales taxes ignored as usual.
Great
ReplyDeleteGreat
ReplyDeletePower is the goal. Saez and Zucman want as much as they can get so they are useful intellectuals to the real power holders who couldn’t care less about who pays how much as long as they get theirs.
ReplyDeleteExcluding EITC and including private health insurance as a tax goes beyond “deeply unprofessional” that is flat out lying. And not including all taxes, such as those pointed out by Jimmy Joe Meeker, adds to the lie. This is not economics that Krugman, Saez and Zucman are engaged in.
The time is soon coming when they will have to raid previously off-limits retirement plans. I don't see how they can leave any pool of capital untaxed when entitlements and the warfare state are so expensive.
ReplyDelete