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Prominant European economist refutes Alberto Alesina's "man tax" pseudo-science
Submitted by Marc A. on Tue, 2008-02-12 21:44
Professor Gilles Saint-Paul of Toulouse, France just published this fantastic article refuting the pseudo-science behind Harvard Professor Alberto Alesina's "man tax." Excerpt:
'This proposal has long been associated with a fringe of radical feminism, so it surprises me to see it coming out of mainstream economics and the academic establishment. In fact, it is becoming so mainstream that Spain’s allegedly conservative Partido Popular has a tax break for female workers in its platform for the next election. Given that the ruling Socialist Party is unlikely to oppose such a “progressive” measure, the Spaniards will have gender-biased taxation whether they like it or not. This will probably remind them of the good old days of Franco.
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...But this can be achieved by a gender-neutral reduction in the tax rate on the secondary earner’s hours (which could well also apply to the primary earner’s marginal hours such as overtime)...
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Such a gender-neutral scheme would be all the more appealing, relative to the gender-discrimination gender-based tax proposed, since the view that men’s labour supply is less elastic than women’s is quickly becoming obsolete. It is associated with a traditional household where women are secondary earners. Only a minority of people are in such a situation. In many countries, for example the US or the UK, more than 50% of adults are single. Furthermore, women earn more than men in a large minority of married couples (30% in Canada). The rapid deterioration of men’s educational achievements relative to women suggests that this figure is going to increase. And, if men do provide lower effort in the university system (perhaps because they are less likely than in the past to have to provide for a family), this suggests that their behaviour can indeed be quite elastic.
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So, what game is being played here? “Equality before the law” was written in constitutions by the people of the Enlightenment not only because they genuinely believed in it, but as a safeguard to prevent democracy from degenerating into tyranny. Absent of individual rights, a majority can impose arbitrary harm to a minority. The constitution defines the rights that the individual has that cannot be overturned by majority rule. Now, given that men and women have many stakes in common, a men vs. women split could seem unlikely. But the decline of marriage and the fall in fertility have reduced these common interests; and the rise of “political correctness” has led us to a situation where men are the only minority that can be played against for electoral gains. So I believe we are in fact entering a dirty – and most dangerous – round of divisive identity politics.'
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Comments
Not to harp on the obvious but...
there's already a "Man Tax" in effect in most "modern" countries. It's called alimony and child support.
Ur Right
But at least someone called the Harvard douche bags on their misandric BS.
Evan AKA X-TRNL
Real Men Don't Take Abuse!
Good refutation, but shows the author's ignorance on one issue
The author says, "'This proposal has long been associated with a fringe of radical feminism, so it surprises me to see it coming out of mainstream economics and the academic establishment"
If he knew to what extent ideological feminists have infiltrated academia and other institutions, it wouldn't surprise him. Even where you don't have these radicals in flesh and blood, you have the direct as well as indirect effects of their ideology. Discounting them as a fringe is a big mistake..possibly one of the biggest mistakes to be made in this century. I do not feel that is an exaggeration.
-ax
Digital, most don't see the truth.
there's already a "Man Tax" in effect in most "modern" countries. It's called alimony and child support.
You're absolutely correct of course. One of the main reasons most men don't see the problem is because they have bought the "It's the radicals" line that has been fed to society time and time again by politically correct pundits.
They fail to see that it's not the "radicals" but everyday men and women that support nonsense such as this which is why it is so widespread. To test my point have a conversation with the average woman(or even man) concerning getting rid of female entitlements and see the responses you get.
The majority of them will not be favourable. Everyday women that you work with support the feminist status quo whether men believe it or not. They support women first and everyone else second if at all.
On another note:
PC men largely ignore negative female behavior. They only get angry when it is THEIR *** on the fire.
For some reason PC men see anger at injustice as wrong, which is laughable. If you hear a man repeating feminist mantra such as "It's not a zero sum game" run...fast. According to politically correct dogma men don't have a right to be angry, they should just take it.
The "Anti-Male Shaming tactics catalog" points out how ridiculous it is to claim men shouldn't be angry at injustice directed towards their gender and how passive acceptance is NOT a virtue at all. Most men however still don't get it and I have serious doubts that they ever will.
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Mr. Reality's new story - Sir Alan: Why I have to think twice before employing a woman
Man-Tax already exists
Being that men pay 70% of the tax burden in the US, why would there need to be another one? In fact, since women receive a disproportionate amount of government funds over men, they should get the tax. But hey we don't want it to be equal do we.
Because most men are too dumb to tell women to get bent?
This will continue as men refuse to hold women -- and the manginas -- responsible. I'm actually kind of enjoying watching chivalrous clowns squirm under six-inch stilettoes.
Maybe if these mini-skirt wearing tyrants finally start kicking men in the head rather than the private parts the chivalrous "Must defend women" men will finally get a clue?
Gender scoreboard:
Women - 100
Men - 0
You go girl!
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Mr. Reality's new story - Sir Alan: Why I have to think twice before employing a woman
V-Day in Madrid
Maybe it's just me, but I went to school in Spain for a year, and access to those Spanish girls is really worth paying a little extra tax.
Would you be willing to pay a little extra income tax if American women were legally required to actually show some respect for men?
You know, hold the doors open for us and pledge 50% of their lifetime incomes in the event of a divorce?
And a nice reasonably expensive Valentine's Day present?
Mr. R is bang on again.
I've actually gotten into arguments with my family about Men's Issues. One time my mom told me I should get a car and that might help with me finding a girlfriend. I told her that any woman who is hypocritical enough to require a man have a car, while she does not, would not be compelling enough for me to pursue. Then we got into an argument about female entitlement. I said it's shallow to expect a man to have everything, and they tried to defend it saying stuff like "women look for security in a man, in case they want to have a family." Or they look for financial security in a man, in case they want to divorce him and take all of his stuff.
Sometimes my brother and my friend make fun of me for being an MRA, but then I remind them of countless injustices from men being locked away on false rape claims, to men having ot pay for children that aren't theirs, to not being able to see children that are. Then I mention that it is men like him, through their apathy, that allow these injustices to continue. I started calling my bro and friend the appropriate term we use for male misandrists. They're "manginas".
Evan AKA X-TRNL
Real Men Don't Take Abuse!
Keep dreaming my friend.
You know, hold the doors open for us and pledge 50% of their lifetime incomes in the event of a divorce?
And a nice reasonably expensive Valentine's Day present?
You expecting the sun to revolve around the Earth anytime soon?
/Sarcasm
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Mr. Reality's new story - Sir Alan: Why I have to think twice before employing a woman