Hey BfAZ readers, I teamed up with my IPS colleague, Sam Pizzigati, for an op-ed piece the editors of the Dallas Morning News placed in their Sunday paper. I can only give you the first few paragraphs here, but you of course can link over to the full piece:
Most of us work for a living. We wait tables or write software. We teach kids or drive buses. We treat patients or lay block. Our income, just about all of it, comes from our work.
But some people — wealthy people — don’t depend on work for their living. They rely on their wealth. The stock they hold pays dividends. The bonds they own pay interest. The assets they sell bring capital gains.
Two different classes of Americans, two different sorts of income. Now which class should pay tax at a higher rate, those who work for a living or those who let their wealth do their work?
It’s good to see other people talking about this issue that I continue to hearken on about at length whenever I get the opportunity.
I’m still waiting to hear what the economic justification is for lower tax rates on capital compared with labor income. The closest that I’ve heard is capital is more mobile and has more ability to move to dodge taxes in other jurisdictions, but that just suggests to me that there should be more interstate compacts and international tax treaties in place to prevent overseas tax dodges and races to the bottom.
Great read.
Thanks, FSNT. What I couldn’t show here is that they give it awesome placement in the print edition. The entire back page of the opinion section.