{"id":2534,"date":"2011-07-15T17:43:26","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T17:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=2534"},"modified":"2013-03-20T17:45:52","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T17:45:52","slug":"its-the-philosophy-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/its-the-philosophy-stupid\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s the Philosophy, Stupid"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n

Advancing a Free Society<\/em><\/p>\n

The Democrats\u2019 position in the negotiations to raise the debt limit and deal with runaway government debt can be summarized in one mantric phrase: the rich must \u201cpay their fair share\u201d in taxes. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer, for example, said a day before the Obama\u2019s Sunday summit with Congressmen that any deal requires a \u201cbalanced approach that asks the very wealthiest and special interests to pay their fair share.\u201d Earlier this year, Illinois Congressman Jan Schakowsky introduced legislation called the Fairness in Taxation Act, which she justified by saying \u201cIt\u2019s time for millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share.\u201d Clearly, the Democrats think this is a winning formula going into the critical 2012 elections, despite the\u00a0historically verified fact<\/a>\u00a0that raising tax rates on top earners will not over time generate more tax revenues.<\/p>\n

Some political Socrates needs to challenge this formula by asking for a definition of \u201cfair.\u201d Clearly, having the top 10% of taxpayers pay 70% of all income taxes \u2014 while nearly half of taxpayers pay nothing \u2014 isn\u2019t considered \u201cfair\u201d by those who want to increase taxes on high earners. So what would be fair? Having the top 10% pay 80%, or 90%, or 100%? The US already has themost progressive tax system<\/a>\u00a0among 24 OECD countries, ahead of socialist heartthrobs like Sweden and Norway, so what more do Democrats want?<\/p>\n

A clue to what they really want can be found in a\u00a0comment<\/a>\u00a0by Peter Whiteford, who wrote the chapter in the OECD report containing the comparative data on tax progressivity: \u201cProgressivity is not the same as redistribution. Progressivity measures how the distribution of the tax burden is shared, while redistribution measures how much the tax system reduces inequality. . . . If you want to reduce inequality, you need to increase the level of taxes collected and spend it more effectively,\u201d by which he means spending more tax revenue on \u201csocial security and services\u201d in order \u201cmore effectively\u201d to reduce income inequality.<\/p>\n

So Democrats by \u201cfair\u201d mean what then candidate Obama let slip when he told Joe the Plumber it benefits everybody to \u201cspread the wealth around.\u201d Federal tax policy is the way to do that and correct the \u201cincome inequality\u201d that to progressives is a sign of this country\u2019s systemic injustice. But lurking behindthat<\/em>\u00a0estimation is the radical egalitarian hatred of differences in achievement, wealth, talent, drive, or sheer luck that create most inequality.<\/p>\n

The other words, the real issue here isn\u2019t economics, it\u2019s philosophical. The essence of the progressive vision is the equality of result predicated on the assumption of radical egalitarianism, the notion that \u201cthose who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects\u201d as Aristotle put it. And since people in reality aren\u2019t all equal and success reflects differences in ability, virtue, and hard work, the coercive power of the state must be used to achieve the aim of what Plato criticized as \u201cdispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike,\u201d a form of injustice that ignores differences of talent, effort, and achievement.<\/p>\n

As always, behind every policy is a good idea or a bad idea about human nature and existence. The progressive notion that the power of the state wielded by techno-elites can create a more just world is one of modernity\u2019s worst ideas. Pace Bill Clinton, it\u2019s not \u201cthe economy, stupid,\u201d it\u2019s the philosophy. That\u2019s where the battle of 2012 must be waged.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92011 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The Democrats\u2019 position in the negotiations to raise the debt limit and deal with runaway government debt can be summarized in one mantric phrase: the rich must \u201cpay their fair share\u201d in taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,41],"tags":[12,165,1026,473,709,680,303,1020],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-ES","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":843,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/class-warfare-the-last-refuge-of-a-failed-presidency\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":0},"title":"Class Warfare the Last Refuge of a Failed Presidency","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Media Now that Mitt Romney will be Obama\u2019s opponent in November, the Democrats are rolling out the false narrative they will use to demonize Romney and obscure four years of failed economic policies that have created the worst recovery from a recession since the Great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1426,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/moral-equivalence-is-moral-evasion\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":1},"title":"Moral Equivalence Is Moral Evasion","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The failure of the Congressional budget \u201csuper-committee\u201d to address our geometrically expanding debt and deficits should surprise no one. From the beginning the committee was political theater designed to create the illusion of action when the will to act is missing. Unfortunately, this perennial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":160,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/let-the-real-fat-cats-pay-their-fair-share\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":2},"title":"Let the Real Fat Cats Pay Their Fair Share","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Who exactly were the rich who, as the president said, were not \"paying their fair share\"? The rapper Jay-Z (net worth: nearly $500 million)? The actor Johnny Depp (2011 income: $50 million)? Neither seems to have heard the president's earlier warning that, \"at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Debt and Deficits"","block_context":{"text":"Debt and Deficits","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/debt-and-deficits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":360,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/explaining-the-democrats-success-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":3},"title":"Explaining the Democrats’ Success","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine The election postmortem has identified all manner of causes for the Republicans\u2019 defeat, from the \u201cwoman problem\u201d and the \u201cHispanic problem,\u201d as Peggy Noonan put it, to Romney\u2019s fat cat persona and his inept campaign. But there\u2019s a simpler reason, one consistent with the critics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3812,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/homer-economics\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":4},"title":"Homer Economics","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The showdown between public employee unions and cash-strapped state governments on display in Madison should be bad news for President Obama and the Democrats. While millions of Americans are unemployed, and those lucky enough to have jobs pay for their retirement and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":772,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-stupid-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":2534,"position":5},"title":"The Stupid Party","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thronton FrontPage Magazine The presidency of Barack Obama has established once and for all that modern liberalism is now the stupid party. Very little of liberal thought these days represents anything fresh or new, but rather comprises what Lionel Trilling once reduced conservatism to: \u201cirritable mental gestures\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. 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