Quote:
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Originally Posted by host
Consider:
<img src="http://www.portfolio.com/images/feeds/blogs/insurance.gif">
Surplus Social Security payroll collection has been rising, and then borrowed and spent by our government.
<img src="http://www.portfolio.com/images/feeds/blogs/both.gif">
Tax revenue trend with Social Security revenue subtracted....remove Social Security taxes collected, and the tax revenue trend seems to be moving down ace, not steady as Hauser claimed! |
IMO, this pretty much sums up the fallacy in ace's Hauser's law chart.
Hauser attempts to make a direct correlation between the decline in the marginal tax rates of
A SINGLE GROUP (the top tax payers) with the steady rate of
TOTAL tax revenue as a percent of GDP.
A more honest chart would compare the decline in the marginal tax rates of the top taxpayers with the revenue as percent of GDP derived from taxes from that income group.
As host's chart points out, the relatively steady rate of tax revenue as a percent of GDP is due more to the increase revenue from FICA taxes over that extended period of time.