Don’t look down The poor like taxing the rich less than you
would think IN THE 1939 classic Western “Stagecoach”, a
villainous banker with a bag of embezzled cash in his lap frets
about the state of the American economy: “Our national debt is
something shocking!” he complains. That year American public
debt was just over two-fifths of GDP. This year, the IMF
reckons, it will be just over 98%, rising to over 102% in 2012.
Were he still around, the unscrupulous banker might have
struggled to express his outrage, although he might have found
solace in the fact that America's August 2nd deal to increase
the debt ceiling envisages $2.4 trillion in spending cuts but no
tax hikes. This strikes many, both outside the United States and
within it, as odd. A Democratic congressman called the debt deal
a “sugar-coated Satan sandwich”. It does, however, loosely
reflect longstanding differences between Americans' attitudes to
taxation and those in much of the rest of the rich world.
America is far less inclined than many o