Watch the budget
18th September 2008
Megan McArdle speaks some sense.
Especially in recent years, the income of the wealthy has become more volatile than the income of the middle class and below. In good years, their earnings soar, and Uncle Sam reaps more revenue than expected. In bad years–particularly bad years on Wall Street, since most of that money comes in the form of some sort of security, rather than cash–tax revenues nosedive. Incidentally, the more we focus on taxing the rich, the worse this problem will get.