The change in U.S. income distribution since the 1960s is fairly damning to the current system of taxation, if the goal was a more evenly distributed income across the income levels. According to David Cay Johnston, in his book Free Lunch, our distribution of income more closely resembles a third-world nation. Some of that has been cultural - higher divorce rate splitting households, longer life spans; other has been government & tax code induced: retirement programs that eliminate taxable income for much of the middle class, increased government programs that tend to reward low income and punish middle-class workers. The rise of SS taxes from about 1% to the current level of over 13% - your employer pays half. Some are just how statistics reflect the extremes - comparing an open-ended high income with a closed-ended zero.
We will have a discussion about taxation, but I can tell you that income tax is the worst way to collect taxes from an efficiency viewpoint. There are at least a couple of alternatives that would be much more economically sound than our current progressive and marginal system income tax with its 67,000 pages, 155 forms, and enormous compliance and enforcement gymnastics.
After Reading your two chapters this week you should have an idea about economic growth and how it is measured.
There are several theorists that address the issue of economic growth. Research economic growth theory using your UIW database or other sources- the internet is okay if you arrive at a legitimate resource- for example, a politically based website is probably not your best choice.
You should run across the Classical growth model, Neo-Classical Growth model, Schumpeter, Solow Swan, Romer and Lucas, Harrod Domar, Mankiw D Romer Weil, Barro, Barth, and Bradley, and Gwartney.
The change in U.S. income distribution since the 1960s is fairly damning to the current system of taxation, if the goal was a more evenly distributed income across the income levels. According to David Cay Johnston, in his book Free Lunch, our distribution of income more closely resembles a third-world nation. Some of that has been cultural - higher divorce rate splitting households, longer life spans; other has been government & tax code induced: retirement programs that eliminate taxable income for much of the middle class, increased government programs that tend to reward low income and punish middle-class workers. The rise of SS taxes from about 1% to the current level of over 13% - your employer pays half. Some are just how statistics reflect the extremes - comparing an open-ended high income with a closed-ended zero.
We will have a discussion about taxation, but I can tell you that income tax is the worst way to collect taxes from an efficiency viewpoint. There are at least a couple of alternatives that would be much more economically sound than our current progressive and marginal system income tax with its 67,000 pages, 155 forms, and enormous compliance and enforcement gymnastics.
After Reading your two chapters this week you should have an idea about economic growth and how it is measured.
There are several theorists that address the issue of economic growth. Research economic growth theory using your UIW database or other sources- the internet is okay if you arrive at a legitimate resource- for example, a politically based website is probably not your best choice.
You should run across the Classical growth model, Neo-Classical Growth model, Schumpeter, Solow Swan, Romer and Lucas, Harrod Domar, Mankiw D Romer Weil, Barro, Barth, and Bradley, and Gwartney.
