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Tax Tall People

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by Felix Salmon
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Apr 17 2007 12:00am EDT

Tax Tall People!

Tall people have many advantages in life, and not just when attending rock concerts. They earn more money, they're more likely to become president, they can take stairs two at a time when they're in a hurry. It's not fair. We should tax them!

Seriously. N Gregory Mankiw, A.B., Ph.D., Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, has written a paper which argues that we should do exactly that, or at least that we should if we believe in the Nobel-Prize-winning optimal-taxation ideas of William Vickrey and James Mirrlees.

Our calculations show that a utilitarian social planner should levy a sizeable tax on height. A tall person making $75,000 should pay about $4,500 more in taxes than a short person making the same income.

To which Arnold Kling responds:

At first glance, this seems silly. On further reflection, it also seems silly.

Me? Well, I'm biased. I'm six foot two.

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