ssemble multi-different kinds of facts. Suppose that it was so complicated that you couldn’t do it; you could imagine that a whole profession would spring up that is was dedicated to nothing but helping you fill out the census. Now imagine you had to do that every year and that’s of course the income tax. That is exactly what the income tax does there are millions of people who make there living helping people with there taxes. They help them file their taxes in the spring of every year, and help them manage their affairs throughout the year. Pollution controls also fall under the heading of phantom goods. Phantom labor has basically the same definition as a phantom good. According to Buechner phantom labor is defined as labor that makes no objective contribution to human life, but is required to comply with laws or get around laws. (Recording) The time, energy, and money that is spent in this economy by people complying with the endless stream of regulations, and controls in an effort to comply, get around, or defeat them it’s inestimable. I’m trying to understand why the growth rate today is half of what it was a hundred years ago; that’s not an insignificant fact. All of this is under the general heading of diverting productive capacity from adding capacity to producing consumer goods.Now there are two other ways that are less direct, which accomplish that same result. According to Hazlitt one is to reduce total savings because we have seen the role savings has. Anything that can done to discourage saving, reduce saving, or make it impossible for people to save by force will cause them to save less, and this is going to reduce the rate of growth. (183) First reduce the amount that can be saved. How can you reduce the amount that people are able to save? Well just take away some of their money. “Seize some of their income” they’ll save less. (Rand 978) Personal income taxes are ideal for...
