Recently, an economist friend of mine drew my attention to a tremendously interesting intellectual exchange of ideas, between Gregory Mankiw from Harvard and Jonathan Weinstein from Kellogg, on the subject of progressive taxation and income distribution: “Are the wealthiest citizens paying their fair share of taxes?”
Read "Spreading the wealth around" by Gregory Mankiw
Read "Fairness and Tax Policy" by Jonathan Weinstein
Amidst the heated debate over the extension of Bush’s tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, reading these two articles is HIGHLY recommended.
At the end; and in addition to the questions that were raised by Weinstein, I would like to raise a question of my own: Is it possible to argue – even when market imperfections are taken into consideration - that citizens’ contributions to the society are always proportionally rewarded? For one instance, in our media-heavy culture, anything that can entertain – and thus, attract viewership- can be heavily monetized through advertisements. Hence, it gives a disproportionate piece of the pie to those who can entertain - the funny host of a popular TV show, for example - compared to those whose invaluable contributions are much less entertaining, such as a world-class researcher who expands the frontiers of the human knowledge.
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