{"id":8622,"date":"2011-04-03T12:54:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-03T16:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=8622"},"modified":"2011-04-03T12:54:29","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T16:54:29","slug":"qotd-the-reason-not-to-anticipate-a-simpler-tax-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2011\/04\/03\/qotd-the-reason-not-to-anticipate-a-simpler-tax-system\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: The reason not to anticipate a simpler tax system"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p>But boutique credits are smart politics. First, they appeal to people\u2019s sense that they deserve a break, validate their choices, and reaffirm their sense of self-worth. The Children\u2019s Art Tax Credit goes to good parents, ones who enroll their children in Suzuki violin lessons, not bad parents who spend their money on beer and popcorn. Second, they give people a sense of control. Tax liabilities stop being something outside of an individual\u2019s control. Instead, the plethora of credits available mean that taxes can be reduced through planning and wise choices.<\/p>\n<p>Policies are smart politics for a reason: they appeal to voters. If economists want to have a positive influence on the policy debate, they have to understand voter psychology: why do voters like special tax credits so much? \u201cSmart politics\u201d isn\u2019t a criticism. Sometimes it\u2019s a way of saying \u201cI don\u2019t understand why people like this policy.\u201d At other times, it\u2019s a way of saying, \u201cI understand why this policy appeals to people, but if they were well-informed, they would think otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no point in telling politicians that a particular policy is \u201csmart politics, bad economics.\u201d They\u2019ll take it as a compliment, and keep on making the same kind of policy choices. <\/p>\n<p>Frances Woolley, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/report-on-business\/economy\/economy-lab\/the-economists\/why-politicians-love-boutique-tax-credits\/article1954892\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Economy Lab: Why politicians love boutique tax credits&#8221;, <em>Globe and Mail<\/em><\/a>, 2011-04-03<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But boutique credits are smart politics. First, they appeal to people\u2019s sense that they deserve a break, validate their choices, and reaffirm their sense of self-worth. The Children\u2019s Art Tax Credit goes to good parents, ones who enroll their children in Suzuki violin lessons, not bad parents who spend their money on beer and popcorn. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,25,53,41],"tags":[188,118],"class_list":["post-8622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-economics","category-politics","category-quotations","tag-electionwatch","tag-taxes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-2f4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8623,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8622\/revisions\/8623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}