"We must patiently explain why taxing or regulating noble things (like work, saving, and entrepreneurial risk-taking) means you’ll get less of what makes America great and why subsidizing other things (like idleness and single parenthood) means you’ll get more of the destructive behaviors that ultimately will drag us down."
— An excerpt from a piece in the National Review by the vice president of government relations for the Heritage Foundation.
"We must patiently explain ..." Yes, you must. Because I don't get it. To aid in the patient explanation, I will lay out the ways in which I don't get it in handy list form.
1. "Taxing or regulating noble things ... means you'll get less" of them. Really? What if we tax these "noble things" to overhaul our educational system? Some potential entrepreneurs will never start businesses due to slightly higher taxes, but as many if not more potential entrepreneurs could be created by access to quality primary and secondary education. I'd argue that one dollar more in taxes spent on education generates more entrepreneurship than it destroys -- at least in our current situation.
2. Taxation and regulation give us "less of what makes America great." Great according to whom? I say America is greatest when equality of opportunity truly exists. I say America is greatest when corporations cannot pollute the environment, substitute marketing for innovation, and provide low quality services at high prices. America is rife with market failures -- failures to fully realize the productivity of our people and failures of corporations ignoring the true costs of their activities. Taxation and regulation are critical to fixing what the market can't, and America is greatest when those failures aren't in the way of progress.
3. "Subsidizing other things ... means you'll get more of the destructive behaviors." Show of hands: How many of you are unemployed, impoverished single mothers because of the wonders of food stamps and welfare? (Crickets.) As much as the left values the struggles of single mothers, the right demonizes recipients of welfare at a rate of two-to-one. Some people become convinced that hard work can't help them get ahead and they resign themselves to government support. But for many, there is real stigma attached to unemployment and underemployment, and if it can be avoided or minimized, it is. Conservatives often have a hard time figuring out what besides money motivates people. I'd argue the respect of one's children is a pretty powerful motivator.
4. Idleness and single parenthood "ultimately will drag us down." Probably not. I think the past five months have made it pretty darn clear what's dragging us down. Credit rating agencies that can't accurately rate credit. Executives tasked with maximizing shareholder value who destroyed all of it. An administration that has crowed about how low taxes spur growth while overseeing the weakest recovery and worst recession in a half century. It's hard to get more "ultimate" than destroying 37% of the equity in the stock market and jacking up the national debt by trillions of dollars. And it wasn't poor single mothers. It was rich married men.
So there. I've laid it out. I am happy to listen to a patient explanation.
-- Nathan Huttner
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