Comment by dibujante
9 years ago
It's an abstraction. You can tax people/things at a rate that causes a number of dollars equal to 20% of the GDP to end up in the state coffers (which brings up its whole own class of issues - what, exactly, do you tax to get that money? Income? Wealth? Stocks? Vanity license plates?).
Yeah and what adverse impact is it going to have on economic growth when incentives are taken away from long term investments and towards short term consumption that would be stimulated by welfare payments to the general population? What adverse impact would it have on the economy 1, 5, 10 years out? The U.S. economic engine is a wonderfully effective thing and among the best modern marvels. Taking 20% of that arbitrarily and twisting it into something else could have deep consequences.
Absolutely no idea. I was clarifying Sam's argument, not endorsing it.