IDEJUS   26001
INSTITUTO DE ESTUDIOS SOBRE DERECHO, JUSTICIA Y SOCIEDAD
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Distributive Justice, Consumption Taxes and Property-Owning Democracy
Autor/es:
FATAUROS, CRISTIAN AUGUSTO
Lugar:
Braga
Reunión:
Workshop; 9th Summer School in Political Philosophy and Public Policy; 2018
Institución organizadora:
Center for Ethics, Politics and Society, Institute of Arts and Humanities - Department of Philosophy, York University
Resumen:
Abstract: Indirect taxes, such as consumption taxes, have been criticized as regressive and unfair. However, there is a more or less accepted view defended by two eminent scholars such as Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel (2004) that rejects any evaluation of particular institutions in terms of fairness or unfairness. The way to make an assessment in terms of fairness or unfairness should take into account the complete institutional setup, including taxation but also distribution. This paper develops two objections against that view. First, Murphy-Nagel?s view endorses an instrumental justification of taxation with only one purpose in mind: to raise revenue. I claim that the instrumental justification allows to pursue other purposes, such as to prevent excessive wealth accumulation or to disincentive certain actions. To show this, I build an argument taking consumption taxes with a flat rate (proportional) as a counterexample. In a Property-Owning Democracy, consumption taxes do not necessarily have to be proportional to treat citizens with equal respect, but also shows that indirect taxation is not necessarily unfair. The second objection discusses the thesis that evaluation of tax institutions must take into account the overall effects of the whole institutional structure. I argue that Property-Owning Democracy principles of tax justice must appeal to other considerations related to a distribution of tax burdens and to prevent excessive accumulation of wealth. If this is so, the potentiality to achieve other social outcomes different from raising revenue emerges as a relevant criteria for the assessment of particular institutions.