The income tax should be scrapped entirely and replaced with a steeply progressive consumption tax (income minus documented savings), which would stop penalizing savings and, by taxing high-end consumption heavily, reduce wasteful positional spending arms races without making people less happy because the social standard shifts accordingly.

normativepending

Speaker

Robert Frank

Evidence Quote

as the number grows beyond a million two million three million the marginal rate on the next dollar you spend can can rise to two much higher levels than we have under the current income tax

Source

Robert Frank on Competition, Government, and Darwin 09/12/2011EconTalk
Created: 6/17/2026, 9:48:29 AM

My Notes

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