The Old Rehash

I read this Piece by Greg Mankiw, and wonder about many things. I read this effort by knzn and can understand his desire to maintain the potential of Poor people to higher Income. PGL at Angry Bear sounds too angry, and takes the Argument far afield, though it must be admitted in a quite cognizant manner. They all make valid Points, but I could make some comments, which could possibly distort all the arguments, hopefully not in any adverse way.

Greg Mankiw makes the argument that one treats leisure as a normal Good, though I ask if One can make that simple proposal. There are adverse effects to leisure either way, too much or too little are both bad. There are several semi-successful techniques to avoid too little leisure, most centered around a Love Affair with your Work. Too much leisure is not as accomplished in being circumvented. Most Efforts fail from either jaded boredom, or a lack of wealth to exploit the leisure in a meaningful manner. The only truly successful removal of excess leisure is occupation, which interesting enough, happens to repel any need for lower marginal Tax rates on higher Incomes. The Case can even be made that lower marginal Tax rates have impact only upon a range of Income extending from $60K-$95k in Our poor economy today; the only real Grouping of Income affected by the Tax rates. Below $60k per year, Income Earners will still pursue added labor to increase their Income, even if it is heavily taxed; all efforts heavily invested with the need to maintain their overall employment. Above $95k per year, only driven Individuals like Obama, Clinton, or McCain will work harder than a normal Workweek, if they work at all; this dependent upon facility to maintain their Income without effort.

Knzn suffers from the delusion that his version of a Safety net is not a Safety net, and would not have an adverse effect on the Work ethic. Poor people have to be convinced to jump for the good Occupations (actually, I agree with him because We need to fill all Jobs; still, I must present the Conservative argument), which can insure that they can permanently join the higher Incomes. PGL’s descent to the Dooh Nibor distortion to criticize the marginal tax rate debates is more Act of Faith than description of policy. I will finish by saying Greg would be seriously disappointed if the Concept of Externalities were extended to the marginal tax rates debate; of course, this is the standard old Progressive Tax debate. lgl