Michael Barone has a good summary of the policy plans to make us more like Europe (Washington Examiner, U.S. moving toward Europe, but do Americans want to go?, April 27, 2009):
Ninety-nine days in, with 1,362 days to go, and we can see with some clarity the trajectory on which Barack Obama wants to take the United States. To put it in geographical terms, he wants to move us some considerable distance toward Europe.
I won't spoil the ending, but the article's title gives the game away. Americans, consciously or not, voted for a shift to Europeanize America when they voted for Obama and a Democratic Congress. What Mr. Barone doesn't mention is the key factor necessary to make us more like Europe. That key factor is, in a comment by Paul Marks (Johnathan Pearce, Samizdata.net, Harry Palmer is shrugging, Ayn Rand style, April 28, 2009):
Of course, in private, government people admit they will not get any more revenue by pushing up taxes to this level (over time they will get less revenue) - it is all about appealing to envy.
Although, like the late John Rawls, they do not like admitting they are appealing to envy.
Envy is unproductive and taxation based on it is counterproductive. This loss of tax revenue is already happening in the U.S. (Source: Tom Blummer, Pajamas Media, ‘Going Galt’ Got Going Last Summer, April 23, 2009):
Mr. Blummer suggests:
Starting in June and all the way through to Election Day, Pelosi, Obama, and Reid — but especially presidential nominee Obama — told the country that they were ready, willing, and would soon be able to punitively tax the 5% of the nation’s most productive so they could redistribute money to everyone else. Enough high producers to make a difference believed them and abandoned their previous guarded optimism.
It may seem like overreach to suggest that the Two Horsemen of the Congress, in cahoots with the President, proposed raising tax rates knowing that it would cause a decline in revenue, but certainly Obama knew that punitive tax rates are a net loss, as detailed at the Presidential Debate on April 16, 2008 (Tax Foundation, Obama and Gibson Capital Gains Tax Exchange, April 17, 2008):
GIBSON: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased; the government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down.
So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?
OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.
Increasing taxes on the wealthy has nothing to do with raising revenue, but everything to do with the appearance of taxing those who earn too much money (Gene Laber, Sun Newspapers, Taxes and Economic Growth, April 11, 2009):
The proposed increase in the tax rate on capital gains exposes a major weakness in the fairness argument. Evidence shows convincingly that low tax rates on capital gains produce more tax revenue than high tax rates. Investors are more willing to sell assets and realize capital gains when they keep more of the proceeds than when they hand over a larger share to Washington. Thus, if we need more revenue to support expansion of government programs, the evidence says we will get more at current rates than at the higher rates being proposed. If Washington wants to tax sin, then encourage it with low tax rates.
The benefits of raising tax revenues are meaningless in this discussion. When someone says they want to make the tax code more "fair" by taxing the rich, what they're really saying is that they want a sound-byte to make it appear that some other person will be taxed, not me, and a distraction to the spending plans that someone else will pay for. That some other person is generally someone who is thought to have come by their wealth by stealing it from someone else and has too much money.
"The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are. Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects - his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity."-Henry Hazlitt
Ultimately, everyone will be taxed more because there aren't enough rich people to make up for the shortfall, even if the rich are taxed at 100%.
Once Americans accepted envy as a pastime, the Europeanization of America is a fait accompli. The only thing fair about these tax and spend proposals is finding fair game among those who will be fooled by it.
Envy, slothful vice,
Never makes its way in lofty characters,
But, like the skulking viper, creeps and crawls
Close to the ground.- Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)
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