Cheap and Nauseating Pontificating
25 April 2006
Editor, The Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
More and more politicians clamor to tax oil-companies' recent high profits ("Bush Orders Probe Into Gas Pricing," April 25). In the past few days, Sen. Arlen Specter and other officials have called these profits "out of control," "unfair," and "windfall."
This demagoguery is as cheap as it is nauseating. If Our Leaders in Congress truly believe in the justice of confiscating from asset owners any large above-normal returns, why not also impose a "windfall-profits tax" on residential real estate whose value has recently skyrocketed?
Of course, that (thankfully) won't happen. But if an American homeowner isn't treated as a crook when the value of his principal asset rises significantly, why is an oil company treated as a crook when the value of its principal asset rises significantly?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, The Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Dear Editor:
More and more politicians clamor to tax oil-companies' recent high profits ("Bush Orders Probe Into Gas Pricing," April 25). In the past few days, Sen. Arlen Specter and other officials have called these profits "out of control," "unfair," and "windfall."
This demagoguery is as cheap as it is nauseating. If Our Leaders in Congress truly believe in the justice of confiscating from asset owners any large above-normal returns, why not also impose a "windfall-profits tax" on residential real estate whose value has recently skyrocketed?
Of course, that (thankfully) won't happen. But if an American homeowner isn't treated as a crook when the value of his principal asset rises significantly, why is an oil company treated as a crook when the value of its principal asset rises significantly?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Thursday February 8, 2007 at 6:24am