Tax Lawyer's Blog

John Hinderacker of Power Line writes about Sweden’s plan to reduce income taxes in order to stimulate its economy:

We noted here that the United States has the most progressive income tax system in the developed world. That’s right–embarrassingly enough, more progressive than Sweden’s.

Actually, a generation of economic stagnation has taught the Swedes a lesson. They’ve learned that government does not produce wealth, and if they want more people to work, jobs have to pay better, after taxes. Sweden is therefore in the midst of a series of tax cuts aimed at preserving the long-term viability of its economy. Today’s headline: “Sweden slashes income tax further to boost jobs.”

It’s an interesting comparison: Sweden experimented with the nanny state, learned that it was devastating to the economic and moral health of its people, and is moving back toward individualism.

Here in the U.S., we had the world’s most dynamic economy, and the lesson we took away from that–some of us, anyway–was that we were doing something wrong and needed to socialize everything. (Emphasis Added)

John is right.

The far left sees only what is wrong with America. It then leaps to the conclusion that in order to change what is wrong it must change everything.

For example, if liberals perceive a flaw in capitalism - say that a minority of Americans regularly out-perform a majority - they conclude that the entire system must be scrapped and replaced with some kind of wealth-redistribution plan. Even though that wealth-redistribution plan has failed wherever it’s been tried.

The left would do well to heed the words of that great American curmudgeon H.L. Mencken:

The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of the truth — that error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it has been cured of one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.

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