Rationalizing Redistribution

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/10/rationalizing-redistribution

The final paragraphs of a Bloomberg News article on the Obama administration's effort to raise taxes on the "rich":

James K. Galbraith, a University of Texas economist and author of the 1998 book "Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay," said the Obama strategy should be seen as a first step toward rebalancing the tax system.

"We don't need higher taxes, we need better taxes," Galbraith, a former executive director of the Joint Economic Committee, said in a phone interview. "Putting income in the hands of people who need it, and not in the hands of people who don't, is the right economic policy."

The last sentence sounds pretty radical, as if income is something that is put in people's hands by the government rather than by voluntary decisions by private actors in the economy. Where is this income to be put "in the hands of people who need it" going to come from? Is it to be generated by taking it away from other people, or by borrowing it from the Chinese or from future generations of Americans, or by printing it and devaluing the dollar? Professor Galbraith is actually no more radical than President Obama himself, who regularly speaks of "tax cuts for people who don't need them."

This is the left wing view of it: They, not you, decide whether you "need" your money, and if they decide you don't need it, they take the money away from you, bring it to Washington, and give it to someone else after skimming off their share of it. What a racket.

by Ira Stoll  |  Oct 6, 2010 at 6:37 am Related Topics:  Education, Income Inequality, Taxes receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list