I like EITC, but I find the focus on change in the tax system instead of absolutes to be very short sighted. Where are all the articles complaining that EITC needs to be even higher? Because it strikes me as unlikely that every state already has set the EITC at the perfect level, and so only changes are worth commenting on.
Of course it's very hard to say from first principles what the tax system should be, but any attempt to do so is going to be worthwhile. The alternative is the implicit position that every single change to the tax system should make it more progressive, (and not make any single person below a certain income worse off).
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I like EITC, but I find the focus on change in the tax system instead of absolutes to be very short sighted. Where are all the articles complaining that EITC needs to be even higher? Because it strikes me as unlikely that every state already has set the EITC at the perfect level, and so only changes are worth commenting on.
Of course it's very hard to say from first principles what the tax system should be, but any attempt to do so is going to be worthwhile. The alternative is the implicit position that every single change to the tax system should make it more progressive, (and not make any single person below a certain income worse off).