Sometimes during speeches, when explaining why politicians shouldn’t double tax income that is saved and invested, I ask the audience whether it would make sense to harvest apples by cutting the branches off of trees filled with ripe fruit.
In every audience (at least when I’m not talking to politicians), people instinctively understand that this would be stupid. Cutting off the branches, after all, would reduce the crop in future years. This helps them realize why it is so short-sighted to use tax policy to penalize the capital formation that generates future income.
This new video is designed to make a broader point about the greed of the political class, but you’ll see why I thought about my story about taxation and the apple tree. (warning: one F-word at the end)
If you like cartoon videos with free-market messages, here’s one illustrating the moral bankruptcy of class-warfare tax policy.
