On Status
7 August 2007
The Editor, New York Times Book Review
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Reviewer Daniel Gross should have asked harder questions about Robert Frank's argument that higher taxes on "the rich" will moderate individuals' quest for status ("Thy Neighbor's Stash," August 5). Monetary wealth and the material goodies it buys are hardly the only source of status. Consider, for example, Prof. Frank's faculty position at Cornell University. He earned this position in large part through his hard work. By his own thesis, then, he inadvertently caused other scholars to work unnecessarily hard in their quest to win high status Ivy-League appointments -- a quest that for the vast majority of us futile.
Higher taxes on the rich will do nothing to create more Ivy League faculty positions, more mansions with stunning views of the Pacific ocean, a greater number of the world's most beautiful women or most eligible bachelors, or most of the other things that confer and signal high status for those who possess them. Frankly, it is naive to suppose that muting competition in markets will mute humans' competition for status.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
The Editor, New York Times Book Review
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Reviewer Daniel Gross should have asked harder questions about Robert Frank's argument that higher taxes on "the rich" will moderate individuals' quest for status ("Thy Neighbor's Stash," August 5). Monetary wealth and the material goodies it buys are hardly the only source of status. Consider, for example, Prof. Frank's faculty position at Cornell University. He earned this position in large part through his hard work. By his own thesis, then, he inadvertently caused other scholars to work unnecessarily hard in their quest to win high status Ivy-League appointments -- a quest that for the vast majority of us futile.
Higher taxes on the rich will do nothing to create more Ivy League faculty positions, more mansions with stunning views of the Pacific ocean, a greater number of the world's most beautiful women or most eligible bachelors, or most of the other things that confer and signal high status for those who possess them. Frankly, it is naive to suppose that muting competition in markets will mute humans' competition for status.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Friday February 15, 2008 at 11:49am