Interesting op-ed by George Will in Sunday’s Washington Post, Hot Tubs And Cold Moralizing:
But do we really want to march down this road paved with moral pronouncements? When government uses subsidies to moralize, as with tax preferences for bonds that can be used to finance this but not that, government is speaking. It is expressing opinions about what is and is not wholesome. And once government starts venting such opinions, how does it stop?
Government could spare itself the stress of moralizing about so many things if it decided that the choices people make with their money is their, not its, business. And government could avoid having opinions about so many things if it would quit subsidizing so many things. When, for example, the valuation and allocation of money through bonds is left to the market, government can be reticent. And reticent government sounds wonderful.
(Hat Tip: Tax Policy Blog.)
One response to “George Will on Using the Tax Code to Promote Moral Values”
What about using the tax code to reflect externalities which the free market is not reflecting?
Take Global Warming. Scientific consensus is that it will cause great damage to the world ecosystem and suffering and dislocation to thousands if not millions of people. We can slow its advance if we reduce our consumption of fossil fuels.
The solution is simple. Apply large taxes to fossil fuels, but provide equally large tax credits on personal income taxes. That way, the overall tax burden remains equal, but we give a strong market-based incentive to reduce fossil fuel consumption and promote alternative energy that does not have the negative consequence.
There is broad discussion of this and other moral tax code ideas at:
http://worldmoral.wikispaces.com/Moral+Tax+Code