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Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at University of Michigan-Flint. So this wasn’t cooked up by some some Wall Street frat boi on a weekend coke bender. And I only post it here because there is a perverse idea I’ve heard repeatedly floated that the rich don’t pay taxes. Maybe they don’t pay enough for your liking, but they’re paying more than most. 

Instead, you might consider corporate taxes:

US Individual and Corp Income Tax Receipts as a percent of total receipts from 1934 1200x606 2377683872

There is, I think, a very strong case for taxing businesses more than we do. That might bum out shareholders, but—and I say this as a shareholder myself—I might just have to live with that pain if we’re ever going to hope at reducing the federal budget deficit. 

Of course, I’m also a huge advocate of attacking the expense side of the federal ledger. No reason we can’t do both.