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Showing posts from April, 2012

The Fallacy of Fairness as Fiscal Policy

I don't care what Warren Bufet's tax rate is. If he paid 1%, he'd probably stil pay 1000% percent more actual tax money than if I paid 100% of what I earn. Fairness is not a fiscal policy, because it is by definition a subjective concept. Yet Pres. Obama is camaigning for "the Buffet Rule," based on his idea of fairness. "Fairness" is not a new theme for our President. I remember an interview from '09, where he was asked specificallly about getting less revenue by raising capital gains taxes, and he said he would sacrifice the tax revenue in the interest of fairness. I was dumbstruck. Maybe he didn't believe the premise of the question, or saw it as a political jab, so he used his fallback slogan: fairness. When I was a liberal, I thought that more money was needed for the government to protect and serve the neediest amoung us. I was certain that raising taxes on everybody was fair. I was willing to give up another 1 or2% off of my pay, if if wo