Taxing Intelligence/Talent (was: 'Waterhole' and land rents)

"S. Doo" wrote in message ...

The original idea was to compare intelligence with land, and taxing them.
Well, brains by themselves don't buy a high income for anyone

True, I should have specified *marketable* intelligence (also talent). IOW,
something that allows you to earn more money than other people (for a given
amount of work time).

And attaining a valuable scarce skill usually means first making a
costly investment in education.

Also true. And (as with the LVT) people should be allowed to deduct this
expense from their taxes. But note: two people can get the same education,
yet one will be 'smarter' and earn more money. The question is: can we tax
away the extra income of that smart person without affecting anything.

But then you have the ones working 70 hours a week to reach the huge
bucks at the top of their fields -- once those bucks are taxed away,
they may well say to hell with it all ...

That's why a tax on intelligence/talent may be unworkable. I don't see any
way to separate earnings due to intelligence from earnings due to effort.
Of course, at the high end (multi-million $ salaries of CEOs, basketball
stars, etc) you could tax all of their income above a certain amount (say
one million $) and I doubt that any of them would quit.

Dan in Philly


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