Thoughts on Taxation

Well said, Mr. Krauthammer:

The Buffett Rule redistributes deck chairs on the Titanic, ostensibly to make more available for those in steerage. Nice idea, but the iceberg cometh. The enterprise is an exercise in misdirection — a distraction not just from Obama’s dismal record on growth and unemployment but, more importantly, from his dereliction of duty in failing to this day to address the utterly predictable and devastating debt crisis ahead.

The Buffett rule is just a cleverly disguised capital gains tax. Good politics; bad economics. The term "fairness" as applied to taxation is also interesting. Clearly, people have differing conceptions of the term "fair". The fact that it is completely subjective makes it analytically vacuous, conceptually meaningless, and even dangerous. As Krauthammer points out, this latest attempt to tax the rich is a poor substitute for genuine tax reform, which is what is needed in the United States.