Something tells me we’ve debated Art Laffer and his curve before. This has to be a troll post considering it’s a Cato piece that also provides little on facts but a whole lot on libertarian pixie dust theory. Exactly what you’re accusing me of.UNI88 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 04, 2022 2:11 pmNo doubt. I'm willing to provide my opinions and the reasoning behind them and admit they're opinions based on my interpretation of the facts. The author wants to pass off his opinions as fact and you were a willing buyer and salesman because the author's opinions fit your worldview.
Cato Institute has a short commentary on Laffer and supply side - The Supply‐Side Revolution Was Good for Economics and the World
Anti-supply siders tend to act like raising taxes will increase government revenue without impacting incentive to work and the myriad of benefits of more people working, taking risks and innovating. I don't think the Information Revolution happens like it did without Reagan and his tax cuts.Economists’ main beef is the bastardisation of these ideas by the right. Self‐declared supply‐siders, and sadly Laffer himself, often exaggerate the growth impact of tax cuts, implying more often than justified that they “pay for themselves”. Top income tax rates in the Seventies were often on the Laffer curve’s downward slope.
Few reputable economists would say though that across‐the‐board income tax rates today would be self‐financing. Yet many Republican politicians made precisely that claim when justifying their 2017 tax reform.
This clear mis‐selling, easily empirically falsified, has contributed to larger structural US deficits. That has emboldened commentators who say the Laffer curve is just a faulty “theory” — an intellectual veneer for pro‐rich tax cuts. But left‐wing critics go far too far in their denunciations.
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This idea is not “trickle‐down” — the belief that leaving the rich more money to spend will filter out to the economy. It’s the same supply‐side argument that all economists recognise: tax rates affect incentives to work or produce, and so affect how much people work to earn income in the first place.
Here’s a fascinating take down of Republican/libertarian economic performance from Reagan’s point man on the budget and one of the architects of Reaganomics. He’s a true blue libertarian but comes to a similar conclusion as many left leaning economists: give me a credit card (national debt) and I can make supply side work too.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ca/274554/
As for actual data beyond theory here’s an interesting take with some stats in the linked piece.
https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/05/most- ... s-but.htmlChances are that you believe you are in the middle class—nearly everyone in the United States does. Doctors and lawyers believe they are middle-class; so, too, do welders and waiters. In a 2015 Pew survey, only 10 percent of Americans said they considered themselves lower-class and just 1 percent thought they were upper-class.
Earnings have been flat or stagnant for many middle-class workers in the United States while health care, education, and housing costs are rising. Surveys show that Americans accurately perceive these pressures too and share a broad belief that the middle class is struggling. Seven in ten respondents to a Northwestern Mutual survey said that the middle class was staying the same or shrinking. One-third said the middle class might disappear entirely.
I think long-term sustainable economic strength is based on a vibrant middle class. Don’t worry, there is some data in here that supports the notion that supply side has worked. The two main problems with that are 1). Due to hyperinflation in key categories like education, housing, and healthcare it’s never been more expensive to be in the middle class 2). Supply side induced growth has never been achieved without the boom and bust cycle and/or creating significant national debt.
In fact we may be headed for a bust cycle shortly that will require either austerity (which affects the middle and lower classes the most and what Stockman was suggesting) or government stimulus.
Supply side is the juvenile running down the hill in the “Old Bull - Young Bull joke.