It is time to widen the debate to address some of the current distortions that have a significant impact on voters. A disappointing aspect of tax reform talk is the apparent lack of intellectual substance to the views put forward. The Revenue Law Journal tries to contribute to critical tax thinking with its articles. Other groups do the same. In our new book review section we give a brief overview of some of the important collections of essays that do provide a theoretical basis for many of the views so glibly held by their popular exponents.
Popular debate is the means by which civilisations advance.
But if it is not grounded in theory it is meaningless. There must be rational arguments in favour of what is to be done. A failing of any group is the inability to think outside the box. We seem to accept as givens the constraints of our society. We need to do more of this in the tax reform debate.