Harvey S. Rosen Quotes
born 1949 United States
Harvey S. Rosen (born 29 March 1949, Chicago) is the John L.
- United States
- Academics
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- Economists
Random Harvey S. Rosen quote
21 quotes
Plato argued that in a good society the ratio of the richest to the poorest person's income should be at the most four to one.
In this country, the number of individuals on the government payroll certainly underestimates the importance of government.
If the goal is to help the poor, why not give them the money directly?
If it makes sense to transfer income from rich to poor people within a generation, why shouldn't we transfer income from rich to poor generations?
The mere ability to postpone taxes may not seem all that important, but its consequences are enormous.
A social welfare function is simply a statement of how society's well-being relates to the well- being of its members.
From a theoretical point of view, lifetime income would be ideal, but the practical problems in estimating it are enormous.
It may be worthwhile to spend a few million dollars to determine the efficacy of program that would involve spending billions of dollars.
During the 1980's, the top statutory marginal income tax rate in the United States fell from 70 percent to 28 percent.
Dioxin is the outcome of the operations of markets. Does this mean that having dioxin in the environment is efficient?
It must be emphasized that free ridership is not a fact; it is an implication of the hypothesis that people maximize a utility function that depends only on their own consumption of goods.
Some argue that an income tax is unfair because it taxes capital income twice: once when the original income is earned, and again when the investment produces a return.
Government grows because low-income individuals use the political system to redistribute income toward themselves.
Peoples views on how the government should conduct its financial operations are heavily influenced by their political philosophies.
Government is essentially a big computer that elicits from citizens their preferences and uses this information to produce social decisions.
Public decision making is complicated and not well understood. Contrary to simple methods of democracy, there appear to be forces pulling government expenditures away from levels that would be preferred by the median voter.
The First Welfare Theorem holds only if all consumers and firms are price takers. If some individuals or firms are price makers (they have the power to affect prices), then the allocation of resources will generally be inefficient.
"Welfare" in the United States is a patchwork of more than 80 programs that provide benefits primarily to low-income individuals. These programs are means tested - only individuals whose financial resources fall below a certain level can receive benefits.
A second justification for corporate taxation is that the corporation receives a number of special privileges from society, the most important of which is limited liability of the stockholders. The corporation tax can be viewed as a user fee for this benefit.
Only empirical work - analysis based on observation and experience as opposed to theory - can answer the question of how labor force behavior is affected by changes in the tax system. Even intense armchair speculation on this matter must be regarded with considerable skepticism.