Martin Gardner and the Laffer Curve. - Democratic Underground

Jim__

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon May-24-10 02:58 PM
Original message

Martin Gardner and the Laffer Curve.

The Laffer Curve was a large part of the basis for Reaganomics. The Laffer Curve was based on Arthur Laffer's "analysis", that if the tax rate was 0, the government received no revenue; and, if the tax rate was 100%, no one would report any income, so, again, the government received no revenue. Laffer's conclusion from this was that there was some tax rate at which the government recieved maximum revenue.

One of my fond memories of Martin Gardner's essays was the Laffer Curve that he drew, based on actual empirical data from the US tax rate and government revenue:

So much for the Laffer's analysis.

Printer Friendly | Permalink | | Top

Richardo

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon May-24-10 03:09 PM
Response to Original message

1. I'll miss that guy

:rofl:

Thanks for the posthumous laugh, Mr. Gardner!

...and thanks Jim__ for the post :patriot:

Printer Friendly | Permalink | | Top

BrklynLiberal

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon May-24-10 03:18 PM
Response to Original message

2. Thanks for this.

Printer Friendly | Permalink | | Top

caraher

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon May-24-10 05:17 PM
Response to Original message

3. Laffer's idea isn't absurd. But

there were always two main problems with it that I could see:

1. lack of data
2. the fact that those appealing to the concept assumed (with zero evidence) that we were on the high tax rate side of the optimum rather than the low side.

Appealing to the idea with no data might as well be guided by Gardner's graph.

Printer Friendly | Permalink | | Top

DU AdBot (1000+ posts)

Sat May 11th 2024, 12:14 PM
Response to Original message

Advertisements [?]

Top

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators

Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.