To the Editor:
In your excellent editorial about the necessity of raising taxes (“The Truth About Taxes,” Aug. 7), I was surprised that you did not mention that the United States’ overall tax burden—state, local, federal, corporate—as a percentage of gross domestic product is now one of the lowest of all the major industrialized countries.
Data recently released by the Organization for Cooperation and Development for 2009 rank the United States as 28th among the 30 advanced industrial powers. Legislators call for tax cuts for the sake of “competitiveness” perhaps without realizing that our total tax take as a percentage of G.D.P. is about 35 percent lower than Germany’s.
Informed debates over the deficit and debts are impossible without an accurate understanding of the state of American taxes.
CHARLES R. MORRIS
New York, Aug. 8, 2011
The writer is the author of “The Trillion Dollar Meltdown.”
Note from KBJ: Cutting taxes has nothing to do with competitiveness. It has everything to do with individual liberty. The last thing the United States should be doing is emulating other countries, especially those in Europe.
