Tax misery index

The Forbes Tax Misery Index

income tax revenues are highly inelastic to the top tax bracket rate

Via Division of Labour, "You Can't Soak the Rich" by David Ranson:

The chart nearby, updating the evidence to 2007, confirms Hauser's Law. The federal tax "yield" (revenues divided by GDP) has remained close to 19.5%, even as the top tax bracket was brought down from 91% to the present 35%. This is what scientists call an "independence theorem," and it cuts the Gordian Knot of tax policy debate.

The data show that the tax yield has been independent of marginal tax rates over this period, but tax revenue is directly proportional to GDP. So if we want to increase tax revenue, we need to increase GDP.

The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else

Massachusetts Question 1: Repeal State Income Tax has failed to pass the popular vote.

This measure would cut the state personal income tax rate in half for 2009 and eliminate the state personal income tax starting in 2010. A similar measure was on the ballot in 2002 but failed.

Note: the title is a quote by Frédéric Bastiat.