Democracy Now! Thinks We Should Tax Ability

Amy Goodman, the Executive Producer of Democracy Now! has argued for “a progressive tax… that taxes people according to their ability.”

Goodman went on to say, “Wealthier people make much more use of the resource of this country, an if poorer people had more money, they would put that money back into the economy. We can see what happens with wealthier people. They take their money, in some cases, they put them in offshore havens… We have to change this sucking sound that goes from the wealthy people — the poorest to the wealthy.”

There is not enough space on the entire internet to explain everything that is wrong with Goodman’s ‘ability tax’. As a result, we will have to constrain ourselves to pointing out just a few of the glaringly obvious flaws.

First, the idea of taxing people according to their ability is absolutely ludicrous. How does one define ability? If Goodman means basing it on how much people earn, then that already exists: it is called income tax. However, a person’s income is not the only indicator of their ability. Would Goodman therefore propose testing the IQ and social skills of everyone in the country to determine their ability and then taxing them accordingly?

As for her claim that the rich cannot be trusted with their money so it should therefore be redistributed; it is classic Keynesian nonsense. We have no idea what the wealthy are planning on doing with their money, but it presumably — as it often does — involves saving then investing it, which in turn results in more trade and more jobs.

Finally, her claim that the wealthy hide their money in offshore tax havens again reveals her lack of understanding. The reason people move their money offshore is to avoid excessive taxation. Furthermore, the U.S. has an incredibly complex tax system, which makes it easy for the wealthy to find loopholes and therefore, avoid paying tax.

Introducing an ‘ability tax’ will simply exacerbate this problem.