re: #312 kirkspencer

You’ve presented the Laffer Curve argument. It suffers when confronted with reality.

In Somalia right now, they’re having a Laffer curve famine. The Al Sabbah (spelling loose) movement was the de facto government in the hinterland. It levied taxes of 50% and up on all farmers. When a drought came along and yields fell, the tax rate went toward 100%.

Farmers who didn’t pay suffered punitive amputations, hand, leg, head. Eventually they just gave up and walked away from their land. Food production fell to basically zero.