Why Tax the Rich: Efficiency, Equity, and Progressive Taxation

Abstract:     
This Book Review is divided into three Parts. Part I summarizes the main findings of Does Atlas Shrug?, emphasizing their contribution to the debate on taxing the rich. In general, those finding are inconclusive in regard to whether taxing the rich exacts an unacceptable economic price. Parts II and III discuss a question that is only briefly touched on in the book- why should the rich be taxed? Part II surveys the existing, incomplete legal literature on this issue, while Part III begins to outline some tentative alternative answers. The review argues that debate about the economic consequences of taxing the rich has obscured this fundamental normative question.

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