From a recent column in The Wall Street Journal by Senator Paul: There is an implication, he observes, “that raising taxes—that is, extracting and confiscating more income from workers and businesses—is harmful to the economy.
I am easily persuaded of this truism. As Milton Friedman said, nobody spends someone else’s money as frugally or as wisely as they spend their own.
But if raising taxes would lead us toward trouble…
…why would raising taxes only on some people (“the rich”) not have some of the same harmful effect?
There are only two repositories of money—the private sector (which efficiently distributes goods) and the public sector (which doesn’t distribute anything well). The only guide to fairness of distribution that I can imagine is the minute-by-minute vote of the most exacting and direct democracy ever known: the marketplace. And if taking more money from the private sector is harmful, it doesn’t matter whom you tax or what form the revenue increase takes. Taking more money out of the private sector is injurious to economic growth.” Period.
It’s nice to see a U.S. Senator who understands basic economics as well as the menace of Socialism and its accompanying handmaiden, Statism. You can read the entire column at Sen. Paul’s website HERE.