On Taxes and Incentives

Most right-wingers will tell you that raising income taxes reduces the willingness to work and invest. Are they right?

It depends. First of all, people work for reasons other than money. Second, if your minimum standard of living is relatively high, and the tax increase puts it in jeopardy, you will actually work harder. Finally, while tax increases, viewed in isolation, can discourage some financially marginal investments, what if the government spends the proceeds in a way that will widen the market for your product? That is the objective of the Biden plans.

The bottom line is that we can only guess at the impact of the Biden plans at this point in the process. My guess is that anything that is designed to move us away from the dollar store economy is worth a try.