By Nancy Latham
Help shift the public narrative on taxes and the economy!
For decades, one narrative on taxes and the economy has dominated: lower taxes are better than higher taxes. The wealthiest, claiming the title of “job creator,” make this argument most loudly. They argue that if their taxes go up, the incentives to create jobs weaken, and the economy as a whole will suffer. And then where would we be?
Possibly somewhere much better. As it is, declining taxes have brought growing inequality in their wake:
Things are great for those at the top, but not so much for the rest of us. It’s time to face the fact that half a century of anti-tax orthodoxy is wrong. Low taxes on corporations and the wealthy don’t encourage job creation. On the contrary, since the payoff is so high, low taxes encourage the rich to extract wealth from the economy, rather than to invest.
In short, it’s time we all start to recognize that taxing the rich will be good for the economy: it will result in more investment and more widely shared prosperity. Taxing the rich is also extraordinarily popular among the general public. Even so – or perhaps in an attempt to fight these facts? – the elite narrative around taxes remains the same as it always was: tax cuts will boost the economy. This tired idea was trotted out for the 2017 Trump tax cut. Let’s give it a long overdue farewell.
What you can do:
The Tax March Organization has been working to shift the narrative about taxes since early in 2019, with its Tax the Rich campaign. And they’re bringing the campaign to San Francisco! That’s your cue to join the Tax March in front of City Hall for a press conference to lift up the voices of local activists and experts, reminding policymakers that we can help the economy – and our communities – by taxing the rich.
- WHEN: Wednesday November 6, 2019 at 11 AM
- WHERE: San Francisco City Hall
- WHAT YOU DO: Sign up here, come and bring your friends, and help build a new narrative about the relationship between taxes and prosperity!
For more info about the Tax March organization, read our article about the group and the training it held in April 2019. If you’re not in the SF Bay Area, or can’t make it to the press conference, join our fight for economic justice by signing up here.
Graphs source: Piketty, T., Saez, E., and Zucman, G. 2018. “Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Estimates for the United States.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics. Vol. 133, No. 2.
Nancy Latham is on IEB’s Governance Committee, and is a passionate member of the Resistance. In her day job, she works with non-profits, foundations, and government agencies that support greater equity and justice through initiatives in youth development, education, housing, and community development.
