Mark Perry reviews some important history of the U.S. income tax.
Every year when tax day comes along, people start talking about “tax fairness.” Yet strangely, I hear very few people discuss the fairness of taxation itself. What right does the government have to force people to pay for services that they may not even want? In particular, what right does the government have to take money from people who never consented to pay? Almost everyone sees that consent is the proper moral foundation for other relationships. To take one eloquent slogan: If a woman says no, it’s rape. Unless we can show that we really consent to pay taxes, we cannot avoid the parallel maxim: If a taxpayer says no, it’s theft.
Here’s Glenn Reynolds on jury nullification.
Washington Post columnist Charles Lane rightly counsels Popes and politicians to learn more about economic reality before pronouncing upon it. (HT David Boaz)
Has the American middle class stagnated economically since the 1970s? No! explains Johan Norberg in this short video.
Brent Gardner updates us on the latest shenanigans of that great geyser of cronyism, the U.S. Export-Import Bank. (HT Veronique de Rugy)
Speaking of Veronique, here she is on the relationship between worker productivity and worker pay. (I’m eager to read the new research by James Sherk that Vero mentions.)
