I submitted a petition to the White House petitions site asking that the distinction between capital gains and ordinary income be removed from the tax code. Please sign my petition.
This distinction produces a profound distortion in the economy that no longer benefits us. There was a time when favorable tax treatment for earnings from capital had a beneficial effect on the economy. Capital investment was sorely needed to develop the economy. Investment in energy, transportation, and information infrastructure, for example, was sorely needed. Today, our needs are different. Employers have difficulty finding qualified workers, and many, many people need jobs. People who might otherwise be qualified workers find wage work unattractive, due at least in part to the tax penalty on wage income. Moreover, the arbitrarily favorable tax treatment of capital earnings encourages wasteful capital investment. We should remove this distortion from the economy to make the economy more productive and create jobs. I would appreciate your signing my petition.