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Monday, 2 July 2018

The Economist makes its case for wealth taxes

The Economist makes its case for wealth taxes: Wealth taxes have the fewest “unintentional bad consequences” and could be the solution to raising the funds governments need to support public services, such as schools, roads, and hospitals, the Economist says. Whereas income and consumption taxes have been widely popular tools over the past several decades, they tend to have adverse effects on growth (high income taxes discourage people from working) and low-income earners (who spend the majority of their income on day-to-day expenses). The magazine notes that wealth taxes are highly unpopular and are politically difficult to implement, but argues that politicians will have to “bite the bullet” and resort to this option sooner or later (watch, runtime: 2:06).

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