10 agosto 2011

Caso acadêmico

Volta e meia, ignorando todos os livros de Economia, vem um engraçadinho propor taxação de "bens suntosos" (como é definido por aqui). Cai muito bem no ouvido do eleitorado, mas a realidade já provou, mais de uma vez, que os resultados geralmente vão na direção contrária do anunciado.

Para variar, o engraçadinho da vez é o Afro-Lula, mas outro afrodescendente aparece para colocá-lo no seu devido lugar:

President Barack Obama has called for a luxury tax on corporate jets as a means to generate revenue to fight federal deficits. The president's economic advisers ought to be fired for not telling him that doing so is unwise and counterproductive. They might have already told him so, only to have the president say, "Look, I know you're right, but I'm exploiting the public's envy of the rich!" Let's look at what happened when Obama's predecessor George H.W. Bush signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 and broke his "read my lips" vow not to agree to new taxes.

Within eight months after the change in the law took effect, Viking Yachts, the largest U.S. yacht manufacturer, laid off 1,140 of its 1,400 employees and closed one of its two manufacturing plants. Before it was all over, Viking Yachts was down to 68 employees. In the first year, one-third of U.S. yacht-building companies stopped production, and according to a report by the congressional Joint Economic Committee, the industry lost 7,600 jobs. When it was over, 25,000 workers had lost their jobs building yachts, and 75,000 more jobs were lost in companies that supplied yacht parts and material. Ocean Yachts trimmed its workforce from 350 to 50. Egg Harbor Yachts went from 200 employees to five and later filed for bankruptcy. The U.S., which had been a net exporter of yachts, became a net importer as U.S. companies closed. Jobs shifted to companies in Europe and the Bahamas. The U.S. Treasury collected zero revenue from the sales driven overseas.

Sem nenhum exagero, isso é caso de estudo apresentado em livro-texto de graduação de Economia. Só mesmo a má-fé explica...