A few days ago, in a interview In El País, Marine Le Pen vehemently expressed her disagreement with the taxes that the French have to pay given the level of waste generated by the State. Milei, in a speech before the Córdoba Stock Exchange, celebrated the reduction of the deficit and the reduction in taxes so that “Argentines can dedicate themselves to what they know is to work and generate wealth.” Last Thursday Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in her speech at the end of the year and in the midst of all kinds of expletives against Sánchez and his government, he promised for the year that begins tomorrow, a new reduction in nine taxes. There are already thirty taxes that have seen their rates and categories cut in five and a half years of the PP leader’s mandate. In none of the three cases were the effects that all this would have on public services mentioned. Essential services for a large majority of the population in areas such as health, education, mobility or housing, and which are supported by their essential financing via taxes.
The slogan in all cases is the same: less taxes generate more revenue. The advice of Arthur Laffer and his curve theory is thus followed: a balance point needs to be found between tax rates and tax revenues, and given the tendency of public powers to correlate taxes and revenues, more taxes are always paid than usual. which would be necessary, without this contributing to increasing revenue, but rather the other way around, since it discourages the generation of more wealth. This is a long-standing theory that has been constantly put forward by conservative and ultra-liberal rulers, from Reagan to Trump or right now, Díaz Ayuso or Milei. If we look at Madrid, since 2004, conservative governments in Madrid have given up more than 65 billion euros due to tax reductions. The evidence does not seem to support the statement, much less in the case of Spainwhich has a tax burden below the point considered optimal. What the application of these statements ends up generating is a greater increase in the income of the economic and social elites, a “hoover” effect of investments towards Madrid and, above all, a significant deterioration of public services. In short, an increase in inequality, as users of public services in Madrid can clearly see, whose education and health budgets are at the bottom of all the autonomous communities of the state.
#taxes #common #good
