Quote:
Originally Posted by Warhammer
I see where you are going and agree with it, but I think that is a different debate. We're moving from economics into more of the social/ethical/moral values when we start talking about intellectual property, societal laws that provide for innovation, etc., etc.
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Well, we've been talking social/ethical/moral for a while now
. Economically speaking, the rich should bear more of the tax burden because A) they can afford it far more easily and B) the poor have a higher marginal propensity to consume. By lowering taxes on the middle class and poor and raising them on the rich, you get higher consumption. You can argue that the rich will invest their extra money, but a lot of that investment money can very easily go overseas (and does). Furthermore, it has been shown, economically, that the more progressive the tax code, recessions and economic downturns become easier to deal with (for obvious reasons). Though you obviously don't want to tax the rich tooo much because they'll run overseas with it. But a few more percentage points won't do it because, well, anywhere else they'd go will have higher tax rates on the top end.