The Winfield Daily Courier recently called out proponents of Kansas' recent tax reforms; stating
the reforms were based on a discredited economic theory.
Perhaps if the Winfield Courier wasn’t convinced by our tax reform analysis, we should jump across the pond and
see what those folks are saying. The
Centre for Policy Studies, based out of London, recently published this
gem: Small is Best: Lessons from Advanced Economies.
They found:
Econometric analysis of advanced OECD countries for the period 1965-2010 finds
that a higher tax to GDP ratio has a statistically
significant, negative effect on growth. For example, an increase
in the tax to GDP ratio of 10 percentage points is found to lower annual per capita
GDP growth by 1.2 percentage points. A similarly statistically significant negative
effect on growth is found with a higher spending to GDP ratio.
In layman's terms; higher taxes hurt economic growth. Also...
There is little evidence that small government countries have worse social
outcomes:
- Health outcomes are mixed: in the past 10 years, life expectancy in small government
countries has been higher than in big government countries. Infant mortality has
been lower in big government countries.
- Statistical evidence from the last 10 years suggests that small government countries
achieve higher academic outcomes.
They even made a video to go along with it:
For further reading check here and here.