Nowadays hardly anyone still advocates price controls, restrictive licensing to carry on a business, or other discredited restrictive measures of interventionist governments and closed economies. A simple thesis has instead gained ground government actions should not bias and distort national economies. Markets, whether for movie tickets or tractors, should
In a recent study, the Fraser Institute analysed the benefits of reforming Canada’s income tax system and replacing it with a flat tax, based closely on the model developed by American economists Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka.
According to Fraser:
Canadians spend an estimated 30 billion dollars annually on complying with
Even before coping with unexpected disasters, governments rarely have enough funds for routine spending priorities. Especially before an election, it can feel politically undesirable to raise taxes or public-sector borrowing. What about cutbacks? British Chancellor Brown, for example, recently chose to cut over 80 000 civil service jobs and save
Since Russia adopted a flat tax three years ago, the nations real tax revenue has nearly doubled and the gospel of its success has spread across Eastern Europe. Even China has taken steps to consider the flat tax as a policy alternative.
On January 1, 2001, a 13 percent flat-rate tax
When Donald Rumsfeld made his famous crack about “New Europe” versus Old, he was speaking about foreign policy. But it turns out the spirit of the new is also sweeping economic policy: Flat tax fever is spreading across Eastern Europe.
Russia instituted a 13 percent flat rate tax on income
