Economist here, I want to rant about why I don't tell people

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My issue is that people don’t realize that taxation has a “sweet spot” where it serves its purpose without harming any one side in a situation.

Make taxes too high and business will leave…costing total revenue received. Raising taxes to compensate only compounds the problem.

Make taxes too low and you need insane volume to get the same amount of revenue.

People get upset about tax breaks for businesses, BUT you need to remember that IF your tax policies makes a business move their operations, the net impact is negative. Favorable tax policies promotes attracting businesses…which “shares the wealth” because they often employ local suppliers.

I’ve advocated for a “USA first” policy where companies get very favorable taxation rates SO LONG AS they source everything they can from within the USA…going elsewhere if there is no domestic supplier. This way the benefit comes at a cost of promoting trade with other USA-based companies.

This is the way the new electric car credit in the (miss-named) Inflation Reduction Act works, an incentive to move steps in the production chain back into the US.