Đừng tăng thuế lãi về vốn

The values that the U.S. should prioritize are a valorization (sự bình ổn hóa) of wealth, the encouragement of saving, and the encouragement of children. People may disagree with these priorities — in fact, they disagree quite strenuously (tích cực)! — but for me, it’s important to know whether a proposed tax reform supports or weakens these values. This is a more important consideration than economic calculations of “deadweight loss.”

...Values are all the more important for taxation because America is a nation of immigrants (nhập cư). Which is the better message to potential new arrivals? Should it be “America is a great country to get really rich”? Or “Americans are pretty egalitarian (bình đẳng), so they won’t let the wealthy get too rich”?

The first message is far preferable — and this is true even if you personally hold fairness to be an important value. It is more important to encourage ambition in those newly arrived to the U.S., if only to take in creative (and yes, sometimes greedy) people who will help solve America’s social problems. Immigrants are responsible for so many of this country’s best and most successful startups (những nhà khởi nghiệp).

...It may well be true that the U.S. has more efficient ways of encouraging ambition (tham vọng) and wealth accumulation (tích lũy của cải) than the current approach to capital gains taxation. But to make that argument, advocates of the higher capital gains rate need to say what else they would do to boost the valorization of American wealth. Somehow, however, such explanations are never forthcoming — because this debate really is about a clash of values, not just efficiency, and one side wants to lower the status of accumulated wealth.

...Only a few weeks ago, the prevailing opinion was that it was fine for the federal government to spend an additional $1.9 trillion, because at current margins, deficits don’t matter. Maybe so. But that nonchalance (thờ ơ) is now mysteriously absent. That too is a sign that, for most people, the values represented by any decision about taxation are paramount.