格里高利·曼昆語錄

There is still time to correct their mistake, taking an approach adopted in a small way in Ronald Reagan's 1983 Social Security reform. Congrecould paa law increasing the age of eligibility by, say, two months every year. That increase would continue until the Trustees for Social Security and Medicare (a group that includes the Treasury secretary) declared the programs in long-term fiscal balance.

Those already retired or near retirement would not be affected, but

those of us now middle-aged would have to work longer or save to finance our own early retirement. The beneficiaries of such a reform would be our children, who would not have to inherit European-style tax rates.

但是仍然有時間糾正他們的錯誤，例如1983年Ronald Reagan對社會保障的小改革。國會可通過一項法令：每年兩個月提高享有社會福利的年齡限制。這個年齡限制的提高會持續增長直到社會保障和醫療保障的受託人宣稱系統已經達到長期的税收平衡。那些已經退休或者就要退休的人不會被影響，但是中年人羣體不得不延長工作時間或者為自己的退休存錢。這個改革的的受益者是我們的孩子，他們不會承擔歐式的税率。

Although the fiscal gap could be completely closed with reduced spending, a realistic political compromise will likely include higher revenues as well. Even here, however, rather than consider a

reversal of the Bush tax cuts, the new Treasury secretary should look

for more efficient revenue sources.

雖然税收漏洞可以完全由減少財政開銷來解決，但是一個現實的政治性妥協同樣願意增加一定財政收入來解決這個問題。無論如何，我們的新財政部部長會尋找更有效的税收來源，而不是簡單的摒棄布什所提出的減少税收的政策。

Economists have long noted that while most taxes distort incentives and shrink the size of the economic pie, others improve incentives and enlarge it. A higher tax on gasoline, for example, is better than CAFE standards as a policy to improve the fuel efficiency of the American car fleet. It would also encourage people to drive leby, for instance, living closer to where they work. A tax on carbon is the best way to deal with global warming. These are called Pigovian taxes, after the British economist Arthur Pigou, an early advocate of using taxes to correct market imperfections.

長期以來經濟學家們都注意到，即使很多税收都扭曲了激勵和減小了經濟利益的這塊蛋糕，但是仍有一些促進經濟並增大了這塊蛋糕的體積。例如，更高的汽油税比CAFE政策更能改善美國人用車的燃料效率。他也能鼓勵人們少開車，比如，選擇住在離工作地方近的處所。在煤炭消費上加税是最好的解決全球變暖的方法。它們被稱為“Pigovian”税收，以英國經濟學家Arthur Pigo之名，他也是用税收來糾正不完善市場的早期提倡者。

Similarly, economists have increasingly viewed "sin taxes" as a good way to raise revenue. While Pigovian taxes aim to protect innocent bystanders from the actions of others, sin taxes aim to protect people from themselves.

To the extent that people have problems with self-control, sin taxes

can be welfare-enhancing. Economists Jonathan Gruber and Sendhil

Mullainathan report evidence that smokers are happier when cigarette

taxes are higher. Of course, non-smokers won't object to shifting the

tax burden to others. Maybe we should consider higher taxes on smoking,

drinking, gambling and other activities about which people lack

self-control.

類似的，經濟學家更把“罪惡税”看做是一個提高税收的好辦法。如果説Pigovian税收的`目的是保護無辜的羣眾不受他人活動的侵害，那麼”罪惡税”的目的則是保護人們自己不受自己的侵害。基於人們在自制力上的問題，“罪惡税”可成為增加社會福利的好辦法。經濟學家Jonathan Gruber和Sendhil Mullainathan報告中有證據稱，當煙草税增加的時候吸煙者更高興。當然，不吸煙者不會反對煙草税對他人增加的負擔。也許我們可以考慮對煙草、酒精、賭博等有關人類自制力的活動增收更多的税。

Finally, even if the income tax is to be used to increase revenue, we should broaden the base rather than raise rates. Last November, the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform offered several good suggestions when it handed its report to John Snow. Mr. Paulson should continue talking about tax reform and insist that these ideas get more attention from Congrethan they have gotten so far.

For example, the panel proposed eliminating the deductibility of state and local taxes. This makes sense. Under current law, if one town enacts high local taxes to finance a municipal pool while a neighboring town does not, the first town gets a federal subsidy at the expense of the second. That outcome is neither efficient nor equitable.

最後，即使所得税是用來增加財政收入的，我們也應該擴大徵收範圍而不是增加利率。去年11月，總統的諮詢小組就聯邦税制改革問題向斯-諾提出了一些好的建議。鮑爾森應該繼續税制改革並且堅持這幾個建議應該比之前得到更多國會的關注。例如，此小組曾建議減收國家和地方税。這是有道理的。在現行的法律體制下，如果一個城鎮徵收太多的税來投入市政建設，而相鄰的另一個城鎮沒有這麼做，第一個鎮就得繳税--為了第二個鎮的開銷補助。這個結果既不有效也不公平。

The President's Advisory Panel also proposed scaling back the

mortgage-interest deduction. The federal tax system now tilts the

playing field toward residential capital at the expense of corporate

capital, which in turn reduces productivity and real wages. Even if one

believes that policy should promote homeownership over renting (a

debatable claim), there is no reason to encourage people to buy ever

larger homes. Let's lower the cap on subsidized mortgages well below

its present $1 million level.

總統的諮詢小組建議提高住房抵押貸款利息。聯邦税制系統現在傾向於用公共資產投資房產領域--而這會減少生產力和真實的工資收入。雖然有人認為政策應當促進購買住房來代替租房（商榷索賠），但還是沒有理由鼓勵人們買更大的住房。我們能做的是讓住房補助降至低於現有一百萬美元的水平。

There are many options for dealing with the long-term fiscal imbalance while keeping tax rates low. The main reason the problem is not yet resolved is that the American people have not put enough pressure on their elected representatives to take the issue seriously. The sooner they do, the better. If Hank Paulson wants to leave the nation's finances in better shape than he found them, his main job will be to focus attention on the problem.

當保持一個低税率的時候，解決長期税收不平衡的情況有很多種方法。這個問題未被解決最主要的原因是美國大眾沒有對他們所選的財政負責人在此問題上施加壓力。其實他們越早這麼做越有好處。如果漢克鮑爾森想把經濟狀況調整的比原有的更好，他將把他的主要精力都集中在這個如何達到長期税收平衡的問題上。