"If we raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, then we will remove incentives to achieve."
We've heard this argument ad nauseum from so-called "conservatives," and, given President Obama's pledge to increase taxes on those making more than $250K a year, we're going to hear them again and again and again.
I believe it is time to examine this argument more closely. Not on economic grounds (is it really true? is there empirical evidence?), but on moral grounds.
The reason I want to stay away from factual arguments against the flawed assumptions of this belief is that they have never worked in the past. The sentiment within this assertion has too much intuitive, subconscious appeal to be easily displaced by facts and figures. What we really need to do is reveal the bleak, nihilistic, anti-American and anti-human implication of the argument and keep it front and center.
What is this implication?
Simply put, it is that "self interest" for all human beings is narrowly defined against only one dimension - the pursuit of monetary gain.
From a moral standpoint, this implies that no physician ever studied hard and worked long hours during residency to heal the sick, comfort the dying or prevent illness, rather it implies the primary interest was in choosing a lucrative career path (plastic surgeon yes, GP no way). As for lawyers, they don't really care about justice for their clients, just billable hours. Bankers don't care about investing in economic growth, they care about turning a quick profit. Accounting firms don't care about providing the best financial information with which to make decisions, they care about painting the rosiest picture - a picture that will reward their clients and get them rehired. Corporate managers don't care about long term operational health and maintaining product quality, they care about quarterly profits and annual bonuses, and make decisions accordingly. Engineers and IT consultants don't care about coming up with the most effective solutions for the least investment, they care about creating designs that turn into cash cows (or moneypits).
In this cautionary conservative fable, once you take away a few of those dollars, the thrill is gone. You will have mass exodus from these fields into... well into what is unclear since presumably all professions that reward their practitioners with high salaries will be experiencing the same exodus. I suppose the most common wingnut argument is that these profit hungry folks will just sit on their ass and collect welfare.
If you believe the above is an unfair description of various high paid professions, then you are the type of person that believes human beings define self interest in balanced ways. You believe people go into a profession primarily for reasons other than earning potential. It's important to be rewarded for hard work, but hard work is it's own reward. You may be the type of person who says "higher taxes just means I'm having a particularly good year." You probably don't live a profligate lifestyle and certainly recognize how fortunate you are.
However, if you believe the descriptions of these professions is accurate, then you have got to admit that we cannot afford to continue down this path. If the pursuit of profit is the only metric motivating these folks, then this motivation is what has created the current clusterfuck.
Maximizing only one dimension almost always suboptimizes and ultimately destabilizes any system (can you tell I'm a process consultant?) There is no such thing as a unidimensional meritocracy where human beings are concerned. Our identities have been fragmented because of our focus on material gain. We don't think of ourselves as citizens, but rather as taxpayers, consumers or shareholders depending on the moment.
Are we all just split personalities at war with ourselves over money, as the Republican worldview implies?
Or are we better than that?
We need to argue that while a few bad apples have indeed poisoned the barrel, most Americans are complete human beings, and that the notion that profit should be the primary motivator for most Americans is not only morally distasteful, it leads to policies and practices that are destructive to our economy and democracy in the long run.
I think Obama has started this conversation and look forward to the long road to changing the rhetoric among the general public and chattering classes.