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Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Selling Taxes: Compounding the Problem
The very problem that Matt alludes to at the end of his blog below, the inadequate "contextualizing and disaggregating" of fiscal issues by what are called "opinion leaders," is illustrated perfectly in a well-meaning but ultimately wonky piece published yesterday in tompaine.com, Hidden Truths of Progressive Taxes, by George Lakoff, senior fellow at the Rockridge Institute, and Bruce Budner, its executive director.
Lakoff and Budner do a good job of identifying the truths of (progressive) taxes, citing the benefits they buy, including services provided by:
police, firefighters, emergency services, public health, the military [and] the infrastructure needed for business and everyday life: roads, communications systems, water supplies, public education, the banking system for loans and economic stability, the SEC for the stock market, the courts for enforcing contracts, air traffic control, support for basic science, our national parks and public buildings, and more.
and suggests that "a simplified understanding of the progressive values that underlie our tradition of progressive taxation" might help broaden appreciation of these benefits and the values behind them."These arguments will appeal to those whom we call biconceptuals—the great majority of Americans whose worldviews borrow in various ways from both progressive and conservative values." Biconceptuals? OK, got that one, I think.
"An important point often lost in this debate is an appreciation that the common wealth, which our taxes create and sustain, empowers the wealthy in myriad ways to create their wealth. We call this compound empowerment." Right, good to put a name on that.
Now, ready for the clear and simple clarion call, the rallying cry that will reveal the hidden truths of progressive taxes and help us extol their virtues to our fellow citizens, we come to the final sentence: "We need to return to a fair tax policy that recognizes financial responsibility incurred by the compound use of America's empowering infrastructure."
Is that the best way to promote "a simplified understanding of the progressive values that underlie our tradition of progressive taxation"?
Posted by Dana Chasin
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