|
THE
STUPIDITY OF GREED
Suppose that
every night, 10 men go out for dinner at La Porchetta's.The
bill for
all 10 comes to $100.They decided to pay their bill the way we
pay our
taxes, and it went like this:
* The first four men (the poorest)
paid nothing.
* The fifth paid $1.
* The sixth $3.
* The seventh $7.
* The eighth $12.
* The ninth
$18.
* The tenth man (the richest) paid $59.
All 10 were
quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner said:
"Since you are all such good customers, I'm going to reduce the
cost of
your daily meal by $20."
So now dinner for the 10 only
cost $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay
our taxes.
The first four men were unaffected. They would still
eat for free.
But how should the other six, the paying customers,
divvy up the $20
windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share"?
They realised that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they
subtracted
that from everybody's share, then the fifth and sixth men
would each end
up being paid to eat. The restaurateur suggested
reducing each man's bill
by roughly the same percentage, thus:
* The fifth man paid nothing (like the first four) instead of $1
(100%saving).
* The sixth paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).
* The seventh paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
* The
eighth paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).
* The ninth paid $14
instead of $18 (22% saving).
* The tenth paid $49 instead of $59
(16% saving).
Each of the six was better off, and the first four
continued to eat for
free, as now did the fifth - but outside the
restaurant, the men began to
compare their savings.
"I only
got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed
to
the tenth man "but he got $10!"
"That's right," exclaimed the
fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's
unfair that he got ten
times more than me!"
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why
should he get $10 back when I
got only $2? The wealthy get all the
breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We
didn't get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The
nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the
tenth man didn't show up for dinner. The nine sat down
and ate without
him, but when they came to pay the bill, they discovered
that they
didn't have enough money between all of them to meet even half
of the
bill!
That, boys and girls, journalists and college
professors, is how our tax
system works. The people who pay the
highest taxes get the most benefit
from a tax reduction. Tax them too
much, attack them for being wealthy,
and they just may not show up at
the table anymore.
There are lots of good restaurants in
Monaco and the Caribbean.
[With thanks to David R. K, Professor of
Economics,
University
of NSW.] |
