Taxing the Rich is Not a New Idea - It Didnt Work in 1921 Either - Article Example

Editorial Analysis: Taxing the Rich is Not a New Idea. It didn’t work in 1921 Either Introduction This essay critically analyzes an editorial article in the light of the book “The Uses of Argument” published by the Dr. Stephen Toulmin, while working as the Chair of the department of Philosophy at the University of Leeds. Our editorial analysis contains various classifiers developed by Toulmin himself. We will identify the claims, rebuttals, warrants, grounds, qualifier, and reservation. The article chosen for Toulmin analysis was published in Deseret News Editorial Section that has the title, “Taxing the Rich is not a New Idea. It didn’t work in 1921 either”(Sowell). The author of this article is Dr. Thomas Sowell, who belongs to the Stanford University in the Hoover Institute. He is now new into the controversial articles. He got the degrees of Columbia, Harvard, and Ph. D from University of Chicago. He is quite an authoritative personality in the niches of taxing policies as well as effects of these policies on the revenues. Identification of Toulmin Elements The claims of the author are hidden in the title of the editorial article. He claims that taxing the rich didn’t work in the past, in 1921 (Sowell). He thinks that it will not work even now. Claims Sowell wants the reader to believe on his claims. His claims are presented as follows. Increasing the taxes on the people doesn’t necessarily increase the taxes revenues. The idea of increasing the taxes on the top people is not corresponding to increasing the taxation revenues. The rich people have more options for saving their income from taxation than they had in 1921. The people having a lot of money hide it so that they are not enforced for taxation. The people searching for jobs and looking to establish small businesses would be more affected by the tax increases due to the people residing in the top bracket of society. The tax revenues will be increased if the economic activities are increased for the government. The mindset of achieving more tax revenues by increasing the taxes on the rich is totally absurd. Reader’s Views The reader might agree to most of his points since these are based on his vast experience in the taxation policies. The readers might argue with the author that taxes should directly be paid to the government, and the policies regarding the taxation should be changed to maximize the profits incurred from taxes. The author seems to make us believe that taxation policies of 1921 shouldn’t be repeated now since they have already failed. The author also wants us not to fall in the trap of class warfare politics between politicians and journalists. Supporting Arguments The claims of Sowell are supported by 4 grounds as follows. The number of people having the taxable amount of more than $300,000 or more has declined from 1000 in 1921 to just 300 in a period of just five years. Andrew Mellon, Secretary Treasury argued that the money is shifted out of the economy quickly without being utilized in the national taxes as well as tax-exempted securities such as loads of municipalities. Tax exempted securities had estimated investments that increased nearly three times in just 10 years. For injection of taxable income of rich people into the government’s economy, Mellon requested the Congress to remove the tax exemptions from the municipality bonding and other securities. Congress rejected this offer sternly since that would have caused severe reaction from the officials of the state and municipalities. The Congress reduced the tax incurred in the top tier from 73 to just 24% in the mid of 1920s that allowed the money to flow back into the economy that had some chances in terms of tax exemptions securities. This decision and policy proved quite fruitful in terms of creating the job opportunities as well as increasing the revenues from tax for the government as compared to the increasing the taxes for the wealthy people. Warrant The warrant of the writer is the quote from the statements for Secretary Mellon that indicated that the desired result was opposite to whathappened in reality. Mellon argued that the system that allows high-income persons not to pay required amount of taxes to support the policies and economy of the government should be changed immediately. Qualifiers The arguments of Sowell don’t include any kinds of signs, authority, generalizations, and definitions. Sowell disclosed the fact that the Congress increased the rates of tax in 1921 that resulted in the top tier persons to reduce from 1000 to less than 300 in 5 years. Moreover, the decision of Congress to increase the tax rate to 73% of the top earners of the society, the rich people invested their money into the niches of tax exemptions. This fact is the basis of the article of Sowell that states that increasing the taxes on the top bracket people didn’t help the cause of the government much. The results are opposite to those intended. Sowell is intelligent enough not to utilize the obsolete words in his arguments like “always”, or “never”. He used the word “vast” in terms of qualifiers that establishes the connection between his arguments and the logical reasoning. He stated in the article that the vast amount of money that should’ve been utilized in the economy of the country, has been moved to the tax exempted areas. Rebuttals Sowell has included the sufficient details well in meeting the rebuttals of the readers. The writer argues that the top bracket people are quite intelligent in moving their assets to the other countries with ease to avoid any kind of taxation. The assumptions of increasing the taxation revenues automatically become null and void. The people who are in the favor of the idea that rich people should be taxed more are quite hurt with these results. Hence, it is quite clear that policy makers should think wisely to avoid trying anything that has already failed before and has little chances of gathering fruits again. Sowell presents his claims in his article to the readers in the most appropriate ways by including the quotes from the Secretary Mellon. Sowell is very much into the political fight between the journalists and the government. He thinks that the fight between the two parties is merely class warfare. The readers really cannot claim themselves to be ignorant. Conclusion Sowell has presented his views in a most beautiful fashion by proving his arguments in a logical way. He justified his claims in the light of the clear facts and reasons. He included he quotes from some famous persons to give more weight to his arguments and claims. His article deserves the appreciation in terms of the depth he covered in his statements. His style of writing keeps the reader interested in his words always. The readers get the clear insight into the idea presented in his articles. This article presents the clear picture of the taxation policies for rich people implemented in 1921. Those efforts focused on taxing the rich people more to increase the revenues and economy of the government. As the rules were implemented by the Congress, the rich people stated investing their money in other tax exempted niches. Some people went to the extent of shifting their money to the other countries that put the taxation out of the question. The results of the policies were not fruitful in the long run. Although the top tier people reduced by 67% in five years, yet the results were not favorable in most of the areas. The revenues, instead of rising, started decreasing. Works Cited Sowell, Thomas. "Taxing the rich not a new idea, it didn’t work in 1921, either." 2011. Read More