02/18/2008
Reading about the lack of success of Virginia’s "Tax Me More Fund", a voluntary fund to which Virginia taxpayers who feel their taxes are too low can contribute, ['Tax Me More Fund' raises little revenue ,By Seth McLaughlin, Washington Times, February 15, 2008 ] I’m reminded of a saying of the late Senator Russell Long "Tax reform means 'Don’t tax you, don’t tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.' "
According to the Washington Times, the fund has received a total of $10,217.04 since 2002. Megan McCardle says that
This is what economists call "revealed preference". What most of us are really in favor of is higher taxes on other people. If we wanted higher taxes on ourselves, we'd give the money to charity
And if you do want to give money away, you have much better chance of having it do what you want if you give it to private charity. But there’s another factor — money given to the government turns into a form of interracial wealth transfer, which is why African-Americans tend to be in favor of higher taxes even if they're in the upper brackets themselves. David Horowitz was criticized for saying in 2001 as one of his Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks — and Racist Too, that
Reparations To African Americans Have Already Been Paid
Since the passage of the Civil Rights Acts and the advent of the Great Society in 1965, trillions of dollars in transfer payments have been made to African-Americans in the form of welfare benefits and racial preferences (in contracts, job placements and educational admissions) — all under the rationale of redressing historic racial grievances. It is said that reparations are necessary to achieve a healing between African-Americans and other Americans. If trillion dollar restitutions and a wholesale rewriting of American law (in order to accommodate racial preferences) for African-Americans is not enough to achieve a "healing," what will?
Putting it another way, people are less likely to want to give money to the government, or to support higher taxes and progressive social programs, if they feel that their tax money is going to benefit not their community, but someone else’s community across town. See Diversity Is Strength. It’s Also The Worst Sort Of Welfare State, by Steve Sailer.
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