“A tax on income is the price you pay for working; a tax on profits, the price you pay for success; and a tax on capital gains, the price you pay for taking risks that work out.”
That is Steve Forbes’ great one-sentence explanation of taxes in Forbes magazine. When you tax something you get less of it. Here’s a few questions:
Knowing that more taxes reduce the incentive to work, succeed, and take risk, do we increase taxes or reduce them?
What is the optimal point of tax rates that will produce the most work, success and risk taking for our whole economy?
In other words, how much work, success, and risk taking do we want?
How much economic prosperity do we want?