Should Rich Pay Higher Taxes?
Yesterday's newspaper The Hindu reported that India's tainted home minister Mr. Chidambaram wants to raise taxes on rich people (you can read the full story here ). He was quoted as saying, “We must raise the tax revenue to defend [the expected aggregate decline of resources]. I know many people won't like this. But, I think, I can summon up the courage to make the statement...I [was] the Finance Minister who slashed your tax rates. Therefore ... you must be prepared to pay higher tax rates, especially the rich must be prepared to pay higher tax.” Is Chidambaram right about his proposal for raising tax on rich people? Is his policy economically and financially sound? Readers of my blog will know my answer that any kind of taxation is an outright theft of peoples' hard earn money. But I will let one of the greatest economist of 20th Century, Ludwig von Mises, answer these questions. I am reading his extremely important book The Causes of the Economic Crisis right now a