Talk:Laffer curve

Terminology

What is a "stylized graph?" I have degrees in math and engineering, and have never heard of such a thing; neither does a Google search turn up any significant hits. Perhaps this should just read "graph?"

vague

"There is serious doubt about the relevance considering a single marginal tax rate."

The relevance of what? Of considering a marginal tax rate? Of the curve? Vague. Surely the curve. But needs clarity.

Graphs removed

Average annual growth in U.S. employment, by top income tax bracket rate, 1940-2011

The U.S. federal effective corporate tax rate, 1947-2011

These graphs were removed because they "have little relevance and provide no context for the section's content". Why aren't they relevant to the Laffer curve? Do we need a source saying that the government gets more revenue when there are more jobs? For those of you who think they provide no context for the article, please say why. I think they explain a great deal. —Cupco 20:44, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

While I agree that economic growth increases government revenue, I don't see that either one of these graphs makes that point. In addition, it would seem to have to have some direct connection to how this applies to the Laffer curve. The first graph is the average annual growth, which seems to suggest an optimal tax rate above 75% for economic growth. Obviously, this is WP:SYN and WP:POV - and at what point does it make use of the Laffer curve? And at what point does economic growth overtake the an increase in the tax? It's SYN on top of SYN, on top of SYN. Then we have the "The U.S. federal effective corporate tax rate, 1947-2011". How does this apply to the Relationship with supply-side economics? Am I looking for the Reagan years here to prove something? Laffer curve? I understand this stuff... imagine a user unfamiliar with this content. The graph has no relation to the content. It doesn't tell the user anything about the topic. Morphh ^(talk) 21:31, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

As we discussed above, there is considerable disagreement as to whether the Laffer curve peaks above 70%, which the majority of the economists and almost all of the peer reviewed secondary literature says it does. The people with an opposing view say it peaks below 30%. The graphs are accurate representations of historical facts, and one of them agrees with the former of the two of the differing opposing views. Do you believe that because historical facts agree with one of the two differing opinions, that means the facts themselves are biased and synthesis? —Cupco 01:19, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

Laffer placed in "Other" Category

I find it curious that Laffer, the guy who came up with the Laffer curver, is slotted into the "other"category near the bottom of the Empiricle Data section, while the "The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics", which is frankly so large I doubt the co-authors could have studied Laffer curves sufficiently to come up with a great result. Shouldn't the guy who came up with this be at the top of the Empiricle Data section? JettaMann (talk) 17:20, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

government revenue vs. tax revenue

Under "In political discourse", "Reaganomics":

According to the CBO historical tables, government revenue as a percentage of GDP increased from 31.8% in 1980 to 33.2% in 1989. ^[25]

The article Hauser's law, under "History:

From fiscal year 1946 to fiscal year 2007, federal tax receipts as a percentage of gross domestic product averaged 17.9%, with a range from 14.4% to 20.9%.[5] 2009 tax collections, at 15% of GDP...

If "31.8% in 1980" is the same kind of number that Hauser claimed was never far from 19.5%, the article on Hauser's law should note that Hauser's law failed from 1980 to 1989.

If there is a meaningful difference between "government revenue" and "federal tax receipts", either this mention of government revenue should be removed from the article on Laffer's curve, or there should be an explanation that this is a different type of measure, and there should be an explanation of what the citation is believed to illustrate.

Jmichael ll (talk) 03:12, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Records and Analysis

Lawrence, there is a difference between simple records and analysis.

An academic study says, "things must be this way."

Simple record says, "this happened."

A record doesn't say, "what happened could not have been otherwise" but rather "this happened to occur." It's like saying "Babe Ruth happened to have a lot of strike outs during his period of home run hits." Almost anything can serve as a source for the latter, and since this is a simple matter of record, I really don't care WHAT source you want to use. It's just boring news about 2000s tax revenues that HAPPENED to agree with the theory predicted by Hsing in the 1990s. Let's not war about the news, but work together until you're okay with it.SkyWriter (Tim) (talk)