Soaking the rich
How much do high-income people respond to tax changes?
“LET me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote these words in 1926, he was referring to the attitudes of the wealthy, not to their tax returns. But his phrase also captures a common view amongst economists: that people with high incomes are more responsive to tax changes than people who earn less.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Soaking the rich”
From the January 24th 1998 edition
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