Dangers of Tax Discrimination (Spanish "Conservative" Law Would Cut Taxes for Women Only)

VOX ^ | February 9, 2008 | Gilles St-Paul

[BavarianAlps]

The conservative Spanish Partido Popular has proposed gender-based taxation in line with recent research and several Vox columns by Alberto Alesina and Andrea Ichino. Here one of Europe’s most eminent labour economists makes the counter argument.

A few centuries back, Europe was under a feudal system. A self-appointed caste of aristocrats was supported - thanks to the labour of the laymen. The system was based on the latter having fewer civil rights than the former; they had to pay high (mostly in kind) taxes, so that the nobility did not have to work for a living. Predictably, at some point such a system was deemed unfair. The people of the Enlightenment abolished the privileges of the nobility and wrote constitutions stating that all citizens were equal before the law. In recent papers and Vox columns, Alberto Alesina, Andrea Ichino, and co-authors propose to overturn these constitutions and to restore some fiscal privileges based on a birth characteristic: sex.1 That is, they propose that women pay less taxes than men, everything else equal.

This proposal has long been associated with a fringe of radical feminism, so it surprises me to see it coming out of mainstream economics and the academic establishment. In fact, it is becoming so mainstream that Spain’s allegedly conservative Partido Popular has a tax break for female workers in its platform for the next election. Given that the ruling Socialist Party is unlikely to oppose such a “progressive” measure, the Spaniards will have gender-biased taxation whether they like it or not. This will probably remind them of the good old days of Franco.

So why is it that mainstream politicians and academics alike are now endorsing the fringe radical feminist political agenda

[BavarianAlps]

The same thing is happening in the US Congress. Republican male politicians are battling each other to see who can help the radical feminists most. In the USA, such a tax would not be so blatant. In fact, the MSM would simply not report on it after it passed on page 259 of a giant omnibus bill for the Department of Justice or something.

[ovrtaxt]

Heck, if I lived in Spain, I’d put that wench of mine to work and sit around on the topless beaches all day. Tax savings is tax savings.

Yeah, this law is good for society! What brilliance.

[rrrod]

ATTABOY!

[ovrtaxt]

lol Now you know some Spanish schlub is thinking just that.

[rrrod]

LOL! A lot of my Cuban pals will sign up this morning!

[BavarianAlps]

Meanwhile, men in Spain are still expected to pay for dinner on dates.

[DUMBGRUNT]

How many will this add to the ranks of transsexuals, cross dressers...

[Clemenza]

Meanwhile, men in Spain are still expected to pay for dinner on dates.

You mean, that's not true here in the states? Man, how STUPID I've been! ;-)

[Kellis91789]

This is part of a “feminist agenda” ? I don’t get it. Don’t they understand that when an employer knows a woman will have to pay less in taxes, it just gives them an excuse to pay women less to begin with ? Even if the employer didn’t make a conscious decision to do that, women competing for jobs will be willing to bid down the gross wages more than the men will. The result will be lower gross wages for women than men, while the relative after-tax wages will stay static. It pains me to see people so ignorant of how labor markets work.