Quote from: NotLambchop on November 22, 2014, 08:34:48 PM

Quote from: odolvlobo on November 22, 2014, 08:12:33 PM

Quote from: NotLambchop on November 22, 2014, 06:55:44 PM

Quote from: gts476 on November 20, 2014, 05:24:36 PM

Quote from: pattu1 on November 20, 2014, 03:50:08 PM

Quote from: gts476 on November 19, 2014, 10:46:24 AM

It is the government that creates increases wealth inequality.

If not for progressive taxes, wealth inequality would be higher.

Prove it.

Cite peer reviewed evidence or argument from first principles.

Because if not for progressive taxation, rich people would pay less in taxes, and poor people would pay more.
Are you suggesting that rich people paying less in taxes would make them poorer?
Or that poor paying more in taxes would make them richer?
Those are the only scenarios which would reduce financial inequality, and both are self-contradictory.

It is not so cut and dry. A progressive tax reduces the productivity of the most efficient producers. Reduced productivity results in more expensive goods for the poor, countering the benefits of their lower taxes.

It is as cut-and-dry as that.
If progressive taxation indeed increases the prices of good, those prices are increased for rich & poor alike, allowing us to factor out this [disputable] increase when solving for economic inequality.

Wealth disparity is not a problem in and of itself. The problem is having too many people living in poverty. It can be argued that reduced productivity would lead to this.