Here, most people would also say no—they’d want the “bonus” for children to be equal for low- and high-income families, but they do not want the “penalty” for lacking children to be the high for same and low income.
Note typo.
Great post! I actually started trying to argue against your analysis here in the child tax example, based on my own intuition. Then I realized I was being a sophist. I had good reasons for both preferences, but the reason for the progressive penalty wasn’t applied to the flat bonus, nor vice versa.
I might have to be careful about how this ‘politics’ thing affects my thinking.
I know this post is five years old, but can someone explain this to me? I understood that both questions could have an answer of no because one may want to minimize the monetary loss / maximize the monetary gain of the poorer family—therefore, the poorer family should get a higher reduction and a lower penalty. Am I misunderstanding something about the situation?
Note typo.
Great post! I actually started trying to argue against your analysis here in the child tax example, based on my own intuition. Then I realized I was being a sophist. I had good reasons for both preferences, but the reason for the progressive penalty wasn’t applied to the flat bonus, nor vice versa.
I might have to be careful about how this ‘politics’ thing affects my thinking.
I know this post is five years old, but can someone explain this to me? I understood that both questions could have an answer of no because one may want to minimize the monetary loss / maximize the monetary gain of the poorer family—therefore, the poorer family should get a higher reduction and a lower penalty. Am I misunderstanding something about the situation?