The Luke Effect and Federal Taxation: A Commentary on McMahon's The Matthew Effect and Federal Taxation

Abstract

Professor Martin J. McMahon, Jr.'s Article demonstrates that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer in the United States, that something must be done to deal with increasing income inequality, and that income tax rates should be more progressive. Increasing tax rates on the super-rich as he suggests, however, will not eliminate these problems by itself. There is no way to decrease income inequality without increasing rate progressivity on a wider range of taxpayers. To do so would be politically problematic, and it therefore seems unlikely that these problems can be solved through the federal tax system.