High income taxes do not reduce the wealth of the rich; it keep the unwealthy from becoming rich.  A small businessman depends on income to finance his financial growth. The rich float stock offerings; raising money that requires no interest payment and does not have to be repaid.-  HKO

Stripped of his numbers an economist would have to resort to the old home truths about how the world works: If you tax something you get less of it; as a general rule an individual manages his own affairs better than his neighbor can; it’s rude to be bossy; the number of problems that resolve themselves if only you wait long enough is far larger than the number of problems solved by mucking around in them. And the cure is often worse than the disease:

In the long run, the aggregate of the decisions of individual businessmen, exercising individual judgment in a free economy, even if often mistaken, is likely to do less harm than the centralized decisions of a Government; and certainly the harm is likely to be counteracted faster.

From The Weekly Standard, No Statistics, No Mischief, A modest proposal for the new Fed chairman,  by Andrew Ferguson.

Demagoguing the minimum wage sounds good and plays well to liberal posers, but does very little for very few people, and the people who benefit are at least offset by those who suffer.So why does the president push it?  I would guess that it is good political theater and helps him to paint his GOP opposition as opposing the working class, a dog eared chapter from the liberal playbook, cheering actions without results, and content to preach without actually helping anyone.- HKO

But a system that depends on the moral purity of the administrators and elected officials is a system doomed to fail.  One of the reasons to keep government small is that larger more expansive government is hard to staff with ethical and competent leaders.  The more that government tries to direct our lives, the more it presumes a consensus that does not exist and the more it requires force;  attracting an undesirable element into its ranks.  The objective for the elected becomes power rather than service, no matter how much they claim otherwise.  It is also one of the reasons that a skeptical press is essential.- HKO

We find that centralizing economic decisions does not solve the economic problems, it just creates a decider that is further removed from any accountability.  Political self interest can be more corrupt and damaging than economic self interest, and slower to correct excesses and mistakes.  Competence, more training, and empty gestures for accountability  will not save or correct bad laws and flawed institutions.  The ends do not justify the means.  The road to hell is paved by good intentions. Private virtues can become public vices.- HKO

Politicians in a democracy tend to promise benefits and not pay for them.  They create political Rube Goldberg bureaucracies and mandates to hide the true costs from everyone including themselves.  If we accept the premise of the government ultimately being responsible for the costs of individual behavior, it becomes a wedge to dictate the behaviors of individuals.- HKO

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