The Laffer Curve and the limits of the state

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“I’m mortified to have to pay 50%!” So said the phenomenally successful singer Adele in an interview with Q magazine. And why shouldn’t she be? Isn’t it unfair that a person can perform labour for which they get less of the reward than someone else who didn’t perform it? The right to work as you wish and dispose of the fruits of your labour as you wish are essential rights that differentiate free men and women from slaves. Agreeing with Adele seems a moral slam dunk.

Not if you write for or read the Guardian. They took Adele to task for criticising government spending on transport and schools elsewhere in her interview, remarks which are easily dealt with. But their rebuttal of Adele’s complaint about the 50% tax rate was bizarre; the Guardian simply said “The Beatles had to pay 95%”

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