All Government Interventions in Free Markets lead to Unintended Consequences

Marc Faber

 The Swedish Nobel Laureate, economist, sociologist, and politician Karl Gunmar Myrdal also contended that the results of taxes can “diverge greatly” from the intentions. (All government interventions in free markets lead to unintended consequences.) This was already obvious to David Ricardo, who commented: “Almost all taxes on production fall finally on the consumer.”Another issue relates to what percentage of total revenues a government should collect from indirect taxes (sales taxes, taxes on tobacco, gambling, alcohol, gasoline, all kinds of transaction taxes, and import duties), which tend to be somewhat regressive, and how much it should raise through direct taxes (income, capital gains, property taxes, etc.). This is an issue that preoccupied John Stuart Mill, whose view was: “The very reason which makes direct taxation disagreeable, makes it preferable…. If all taxes were direct, taxation would be much more perceived than at present; and there would be a security which now there is not, for economy in the public expenditure”.This is an excellent point. If every American had only to pay income taxes and the government collected no revenues from indirect taxes, which are less visible to people, there would likely be a revolution, because Americans would suddenly realise how much tax they were paying (my guess is around 25% of their income) for a government that is incapable of achieving any meaningful military successes abroad, that is failing to successfully implement a healthcare website for which it has already paid US$600 million, and which cannot provide a school system to which people are happy to entrust their children’s education. - in Daily Reckoning

Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.