Links on the rich, taxes, education 11-04-26

Here are some links:

http://www.altweeklies.com/aan/9-things-the-rich-dont-want-you-to-know-about-taxes/Story?oid=3971382

Progressive taxes are unfair?

http://crookedtimber.org/2011/04/25/the-flip-side-of-noble-lie-side-economics/#more-19786

James Kroeger's comments offer an interesting argument: The rich are no richer even though they're richer. Because they're richer they drive the price of everything rich people like up, so there's no real gain in it for them. He argues therefore, that a (proper) progressive system, without loopholes, doesn't change the actual purchasing power of anybody. I don't think it is quite true, because the flip side of the argument is the poor are no poorer even though they're poorer. Because they're poorer the price of everything they need goes down, so there's no real loss to them. Mmm... Something else is going on... Still, worth the read.


This is a review of Hacker and Pierson’s book “Winner-Take-All Politics”

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/09/hacker_and_pierson_inequality

Here’s a fun little tax toy, but not to be taken too seriously, as nobody who makes $10 Million pays 36.3% of his income on taxes. (As we have shown elsewhere, http://anamecon.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-income-of-top-1-means-to-rest-of.html the rich pay on average about 17%.)

http://www.wheredidmytaxdollarsgo.com/

This is a piece on the financial problems besetting the nation’s public universities, particularly discussing the University of California.

http://realignmentproject.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/the-balance-wheel-of-social-machinery-universal-public-higher-education/

Part of the problem here, which I mentioned somewhere else, is the equalization of factor prices due to free trade, which eventually propagates throughout an entire economy. However, those sectors of an economy more exposed to international competition ‘equalize’ faster, most labor in particular. This implies that those sectors more insulated from international competition rise relative to the exposed sectors. (The exposed sectors are, in real terms, declining. Since this does not appear so much nominally to be the case, a great deal must be accounted for by hidden inflation. We should not be surprised then, at the steady increase in gasoline prices.) This accounts for part of the relative rise in costs of public education in particular, and government in general, as the tax base is eroded by declining wages, which are converging to the wages of developing countries, like China.

How economists can consider this a good thing entirely escapes me. Well, not entirely. This also accounts for part of the relative rise in health care costs. It also helps account for some of the housing bubble, the price collapse due to lack of demand due to decreased earnings by labor.