June 26, 2008
Pigou Club, Vol XCVI
Once again, it's me versus Harvard Economics Professer N. Gregory Mankiw. With all due respect -- and I have the greatest repect for Mankiw -- I happen to be right. Here's the Pigou Club reading that he approvingly links to today:
Yes. Although raising taxes is probably as politically incorrect as can be, it is probably up to our generation (Sorry, Greatest) to clean up the Boomers' national debt extravaganza. And when the time comes to balance the budget, we should aim to tax the bad things (noise, gasoline, trash, violent crime, evil foreign dictators) and untax the good things (homegrown profits, employment, innovation). Other ideas?P.S. So Greg, can I join the Pigou Club now?
I know there's plenty of tongue in cheek going on here, but this is truly the reductio ad absurdum that disproves the Pigou Club. The Government is put in charge of deciding what is good and what is bad. I do not trust them that far. Economics and Markets Posted by jk at June 26, 2008 12:04 PM
Take more of my money in taxes? You can't have it.
Posted by: johngalt at June 26, 2008 3:56 PMHat tip on that prior comment: The O'Reilly Factor
Posted by: johngalt at June 26, 2008 3:57 PMEvery decision governments make either implicitly or explicity make at least one determination about goodness or badness. It is entirely what governments do. Why object to it only in this case?
Posted by: Mike Moffatt at July 2, 2008 4:58 PM | What do you think? [3]