The "Up for Discussion" section of the Zocalo Public Square addresses the topic - "Taxes Hurt So Good." This ties to a presentation on 10/19/11 by Robert Frank, author of The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good. Zócalo asked four professors (including me) about taxes and behavior. Zócalo's lead in ...
"Life has only one certainty other than death: taxes. And taxes may be less popular than death in 21st century America. Much of today’s politics is centered on opposition to taxes.
So what is the point of taxes? More than just securing money for the government. Taxes are often meant to promote good behavior. But are taxes an effective way of getting people to do something they otherwise would not do? And should we be using taxes this way? In advance of economist Robert H. Frank’s visit to Zócalo to ask, “Did Darwin Create Modern Economics?”, we checked in with some experts in tax policies about their thoughts."
That is a good question! As I noted in a blog post about today being the 25th anniversary of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, over 150 new provisions have been added to the federal tax law since 1986. That number doesn't represent modifications to existing rules, but new provisions. Many of them were intended to affect behavior in some way.Psychology Professor Timothy Hackenberg of Reed College notes: "We have always had rules and regulations that temper unbridled self-interest. The real question is not whether to intervene, but rather, when we do so, whether we should continue to rely on intuition and conventional wisdom (as in the past) or use what is known about human behavior from a modern scientific perspective."
Take a look - here.
