At 10:02 AM 2/22/2003 -0600 Dan Minette wrote:
>On what basis do you state that he agrees with most ecconomists? Greenspan
>came out against his tax cut.
>
>Now, if his tax cut were offset with other tax increases that target the
>same income level, then there might be a point to this.
That's exactly what I meant. Most economists, including Greenspan and
just about every other economist I have been associated with, believes that
the double-taxation of dividends produces economic distortions that should
be corrected.
Granted on the question as to whether or not the US government should be
running a deficit at this junction in history, there is still a great deal
of division among economists. On the first point, however, there
definitely exists a consensus, and thus, the logical conclusion is that
Bush is following this consensus - combined with his own personal
preference for a deficit at this time.
>Trickle down economics has been the basis of Republican thought for a long
>time. I thought 1920 was a very reasonable starting point for analyzing
>data. TR was a trust buster, so the clear lines between Democrats and
>Republicans on trickle down wasn't clear that far back.
You betray the biases you are bringing to your analysis by using the phrase
"trickle-down."
Secondly, I don't see the correlation is between Teddy Roosevelt's views
on monopolies and his views on tax policy.
Additionally, I am surprised that you consider Republican tax policy to be
consistent across Hoover, Eisenhower, Nixon/Ford, Reagan, and both Bushes.
Indeed, shouldn't the enormous differences in fiscal policy between
Hoover and Reagan be accounted for in your policy? Moreover, the theory
that there was a consistent view of what you consider to be "trickle-down"
economics from Reagan to Bush is demonstrably false. The fact that you
would propose such a theory, test it, and then claim validation of it
seriously calls into question the accuracy of the results of your work.
>My view is that, given the data, trickle down economics is suspect. Do you
>accept trickle down as valid economics? Let me ask you again: do you think
>it is best that virtually all of the benefits in a rising economy apply
>only to a small minority of the citizens? Should the rest of the people
>accept the fact that they don't deserve to do any better?
I think that it is reasonable to conclude that the benefits in a rising
economy accrue in large parts to those who invested the capital at the
start of the growth and thus reaped many of the returns on that capital.
This is because almost by definition, modern economic growth occurs by
producing increasing returns to the same inputs of labor and capital.
Given that everyone is allocated a certain and essentially equal amount of
labor inputs to invest, it should not be surprising that those who are able
to inest more capital than others are able to accrue more returns.
I think that in a longitudnal study, families across all incomes should
become better off over time in a rising economy, but I would not expect
this increase to occur at equal rates across all groups.
>Bush has another double taxation he could have eliminated: taxes on the
>money which pays the Social Security tax. Is the fact that that mainly
>benefits individuals who make <75k/year and that he doesn't favor this a
>coincidence?
Because it does not produce economic distortions, and because Democrats
would viciously oppose any tinkering with Social Security, including
attempts to roll the SS tax into the general tax code and to means-test
benefits?
>You talked about being fair to the top wage earners before. Is any attempt
>to modify the natural distribution of income that results from a free
>market inherently unfair?
I think that you have far from demonstrated the "natural distribution" of
income from a free market.
JDG
_______________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
