Read this semi serious executive summary from the Harvard Business School.
Executive Summary:
The notion of levying higher taxes on tall people—an idea offered largely tongue in cheek—presents an ideal way to highlight the shortcomings of current tax policy and how to make it better. Harvard Business School professorMatthew C. Weinzierl looks at modern trends in taxation. Key concepts include:
- Studies show that each inch of height is associated with about a 2 percent higher wage among white males in the United States.
- If we as a society are uncomfortable taxing height, maybe we should reconsider our comfort level for taxing ability (as currently happens with the progressive income tax).
- For Weinzierl, the key to explaining the apparent disconnect between theory and intuition starts with the particular goal for tax policy assumed in the standard framework. That goal is to minimize the total sacrifice borne by those who pay taxes.
- Behind the scenes, important trends are evolving in tax policy. Value-added taxes, for example, are generally seen as efficient by tax economists, but such taxes can bear heavily on the poor if not balanced with other changes to the system.
Don't believe that I got that from the HBS? Go to this web site then. http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6258.html
Duncan Williamson
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