Monday, December 23, 2013
Depressing Logic
For the first 124 years of America's history, we had NO income tax whatsoever. Using this progressive argument which states that the allowance for private citizens to keep more of their own private property causes not just economic downturns but long and virulent downturns, one would think that this was a period of miserable economic growth. WRONG!! From 1872 to 1913 alone, per capita GDP went from (in 2009 dollars) $4,400 a year to $10,800 a year (a 145% increase). And, while, yes, we did experience economic downturns in the 19th Century (The Panic of 1819 - brilliantly chronicled by Rothbard, the panic of 1837, the Panic of 1873, etc.), they were a) invariably tied to government banking policies, b) not anywhere near as severe as the Great Depression was, and c) apparently unrelated to low taxation. History 101, folks.
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2 comments:
Are you suggesting we return to the governmental and economic policies of the 19th century? If not, what is your point?
We are you so consistently trapped in the either-or, Jerry? There are currently over 70,000 pages in the U.S tax code. There are 132,000 pages of regulations in Medicare. Small businesses (according to the SBA) pay on average 40% more per employee for compliance than do big businesses. No, we don't have to go all the way back to the days of wildcat banking and a 0% income tax, but if we're ever going to compete in an ever increasing global economy then we're eventually going to have to clean some of this shit up.
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