Marsden Study on Taxes

Keith Marsden has released a new study, "Big, Not Better," on the tax policies of 20 countries over the past 20 years.  He grouped the countries into two groups, those with slimmer governments (revenue and expenditure under 40 percent of GDP) and those with higher-taxed, bigger government economies.  Some of the darlings of controlled economy advocates are in the later group (Sweden, France, Denmark).  The slimmer government group grew faster, balanced budgets better, have higher annual employment growth rates, and increases in discretionary income.  The surprise: the slimmer government group did not show increases in "income inequality", the new rally cry of the left.   Some will contest his data -- fine -- but it is data, not ideological purity that ought to drive this debate.