Being a senior editor at The New Republic , however, it s inevitable that he write something problematic. Sullivan s March 19 column on the estate tax is notable for what it appreciates as much as what it prescribes. The better you do for yourself, the more the government punishes you for your efforts. But then almost all taxes harm people, drain wealth, encourage inefficiency, and generally drag down the level of human achievement. Think of tariffs, which discourage trade, or sales taxes, which discourage buying and selling.
Taxes are still necessary, of course, because, in an imperfect world, government is necessary.
With the exception of the penultimate sentence, these sentiments harmonize with libertarian thought in its most vigorous, Rothbardian form. If the proportional tax embodies a principle destructive to the entire market economy and the monetary economy itself, then the progressive tax does so still more. For the progressive tax penalizes the able and efficient in even greater proportion than their relative ability and efficiency. The whole system is a vast Ponzi scheme, with the difference that Ponzi s notorious swindle at least rested solely on his ability to con his victims, whereas the government swindlers, of course, rely also on a vast apparatus of tax-coercion. What a bummer, then, that Sullivan recommends hiking and expanding the estate tax.