Topher Morrison
PurpleSerf.com
Not really. Many people love the progressive income tax system. It's understandable, it is one of the only forms of discrimination in which nobody feels bad for the target minority. It is difficult, however, to conclude this system is what contributes to the happiness of nations.
According to a recent study the more a country taxes its richest citizens the happier everyone in that country will be. The recent study covered in Science Daily, Huffington Post, and Health Canal are to varying degrees in agreement that there is, if not a causal relationship, a correlation between a progressive income tax and the happiness of its citizens. Additionally, citizens are happier than their flat tax counterparts.
There is a problem here, however. Readers are perceiving this study as establishing a causal relationship: if x (pick a country) implements y (progressive income tax) it produces z (happiness), it unfortunately does not work like that (wish it did).
Indeed, America evidently doesn't have a very progressive income tax relative to other such tax systems, a fact Warren Buffet admitted in his recent op-ed "Stop Coddling the Rich". Apparently the richest of us, those who don't "work" rather "invest" to make a living, are enjoying significantly lower tax rates (15% vs. 35-41% for other upper incomes) because of tax loopholes and incongruencies in our "progressive" tax code. A flat tax by definition would eliminate these loopholes and force the richest among us to pay more in absolute numbers, however, that is not what Mr. Buffet advocates.
Yet even in a nation where our progressive tax system evidently favors the mega-investor and the super rich, members of the tax-exempt-ocracy, the study, compiled by psychologist Shigehiro Oishi of University of Virginia, claims the US ranked fairly high among nations for happiness, this aside from its mildly progressive tax policy. Moreover, according to Gallup's recent poll, which measures "thriving" nations it concluded "High Well Being Eludes the Masses" despite progressive tax structures being the worldwide norm.
So what then actually makes citizens happy? Ah the age old question... According to Dr. Oishi "[E]ven if a society does not adopt a progressive tax, as long as it can afford good public transportation, education system, health care, and so forth, citizens are likely to be happy." According to a recent 24/7 Wall St. analysis of an OECD survey it isn't necessarily public services per se, but natural resources, economic stability, a strong services sector and "a good balance of work and leisure time" which all correlate with "life satisfaction." However the most notable characteristic was low levels of debt within the top 10 countries listed by the OECD. Who would have thought?
Perhaps the best indicator of happiness and satisfaction would be the Global Competitiveness rankings recently released by the World Economic Forum, which when compared with Gallup's data shows that of the top 25 competitive nations almost all of these top competitors find themselves "thriving" and therefore happy. Better questions might be, what makes a nation more competitive and how do nations best balance budgets?
PurpleSerf.com
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| Image: P.A.P Blog |
According to a recent study the more a country taxes its richest citizens the happier everyone in that country will be. The recent study covered in Science Daily, Huffington Post, and Health Canal are to varying degrees in agreement that there is, if not a causal relationship, a correlation between a progressive income tax and the happiness of its citizens. Additionally, citizens are happier than their flat tax counterparts.
There is a problem here, however. Readers are perceiving this study as establishing a causal relationship: if x (pick a country) implements y (progressive income tax) it produces z (happiness), it unfortunately does not work like that (wish it did).
Indeed, America evidently doesn't have a very progressive income tax relative to other such tax systems, a fact Warren Buffet admitted in his recent op-ed "Stop Coddling the Rich". Apparently the richest of us, those who don't "work" rather "invest" to make a living, are enjoying significantly lower tax rates (15% vs. 35-41% for other upper incomes) because of tax loopholes and incongruencies in our "progressive" tax code. A flat tax by definition would eliminate these loopholes and force the richest among us to pay more in absolute numbers, however, that is not what Mr. Buffet advocates.
Yet even in a nation where our progressive tax system evidently favors the mega-investor and the super rich, members of the tax-exempt-ocracy, the study, compiled by psychologist Shigehiro Oishi of University of Virginia, claims the US ranked fairly high among nations for happiness, this aside from its mildly progressive tax policy. Moreover, according to Gallup's recent poll, which measures "thriving" nations it concluded "High Well Being Eludes the Masses" despite progressive tax structures being the worldwide norm.
So what then actually makes citizens happy? Ah the age old question... According to Dr. Oishi "[E]ven if a society does not adopt a progressive tax, as long as it can afford good public transportation, education system, health care, and so forth, citizens are likely to be happy." According to a recent 24/7 Wall St. analysis of an OECD survey it isn't necessarily public services per se, but natural resources, economic stability, a strong services sector and "a good balance of work and leisure time" which all correlate with "life satisfaction." However the most notable characteristic was low levels of debt within the top 10 countries listed by the OECD. Who would have thought?
Perhaps the best indicator of happiness and satisfaction would be the Global Competitiveness rankings recently released by the World Economic Forum, which when compared with Gallup's data shows that of the top 25 competitive nations almost all of these top competitors find themselves "thriving" and therefore happy. Better questions might be, what makes a nation more competitive and how do nations best balance budgets?
