this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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Nobody ever looked at the laffer curve and went "huh, so we cut taxes for the rich, and tax revenue went down, that means we should raise taxes for the rich."
It's been a long time since my college econ classes, but I remember the flaw with Laffer's curve wasn't so much that it exists as it was his assumption that we're on the right side of the curve instead of the left.
As far as I can remember, even if Laffer was correct about his theory (and that's a hell of an if) no one has been able to demonstrably prove the point where cutting taxes increases federal revenue. It's pretty obvious at this point the whole theory is just a post hoc rationale for cutting taxes.
We just didn't cut taxes enough!!!1!! Keep cutting taxes for the rich and someday we'll ALL be rich!!
But the laffer curve indicates that if we cut taxes a little and that lowers revenue, cutting them even more would be much worse??
The Laffer curve represents the premise that high taxes repress the economy and lower total revenue as badly as extremely low taxes would and that there is a sweet spot on the curve where the tax rate isn't too high or too low which maximizes total revenue. Conservatives always claim that the tax rates are above that point and that we just need to keep lowering tax rates on the rich to spur the economy and thus boost revenue.
They don't know where that sweet spot is but they are just sure that we are above it and we just need to keep cutting. In summary, they are idiots who just want to make rich people richer.
Yes, that was my point, that if they actually believed in that model, they would support raising taxes because every time we cut taxes, revenue decreases.