Right-Wing Mythology 101: the MYTHs that the right-wing scam is built upon

 There are so many untrue views taken as “God’s truth” on the right that it makes one’s head swim.  And they are often repeated in newspaper and magazine stories without a question. 

I plan to do a series of posts on the right’s anti-factual economic/tax myths as the foundation on which the right-wing policy ideology depends.  For now, here’s my list of the “top fifteen” anti-factual economic/tax myths of the radical right (not necessarily in ranked order). 

Right-Wing MYTH 1: Higher taxes on the wealthy result in less revenues, because rich people flee from high-tax jurisdictions to low-tax jurisdictions.

Right-Wing MYTH 2: America is a classless society, with considerable mobility between income distributions from year to year, and an opportunity for anyone to make it to great riches on his or her own merit. Anybody who pretends otherwise is engaging in class warfare.

Right-Wing MYTH 3: There is an ideal rate of income tax, based on the “Laffer curve” theory, that shows that income taxes need to be relatively low, else the “confiscatory” nature of income taxation will drive those high ability ”job creators” to do less work, resulting in a poor economy with fewer jobs for ordinary people.

Right-Wing MYTH 4: The US has the best health care system in the world because of private competition, so the best way to ensure decent health care for all is to make it even more competitive, by eliminating employer-provided health insurance and forcing Americans to take greater personal responsibility for their medical decisions.  (This is an example of the way corporatism favors big institutions over individuals)

Right-Wing MYTH 5: The U.S. debt burden is unsustainably high and will cause the economy to crash–like a family, the US government should not use debt to make up for revenue shortfalls to pay for the budgeted spending.

Right-Wing MYTH 6: The best thing for the economy would be to cut Social Security and other “entitlement” spending that grows apace with the growth of the population.

Right-Wing MYTH 7: Government spending is always worse than private spending (this is one version of the “privatization” leg of the reaganomics economic stool)

Right-Wing MYTH 8:  Estate taxes are unfair because they take away family farms and for others result in double taxation –once during the decedent’s lifetime, and once upon death. 

Right-Wing MYTH 9: The preferential taxation of capital gains is necessary to level the playing field with the taxation of wages, since holders are otherwise penalized by inflation.

Right-Wing MYTH 10: A national sales tax would be a simpler and fairer way to fund whatever federal government activities are needed.

Right-Wing MYTH 11:  It was the quasi-governmental Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that precipitated the mortgage loan crisis.

Right-Wing MYTH 12:  Unions are harmful to the US economy, and it is important not to allow a “card-check” system for union approval, in order to protect employees from a union they don’t want.

Right-Wing MYTH 13: Workers in states without “right-to-work” laws are forced to pay union dues but get nothing for them; workers in states with “right-to-work” laws are protected from paying for something that does them no good.

Right-Wing MYTH 14:  A truly free market is the secret of a great economy, and the free market economy works best when taxes are very very low.

Right-Wing MYTH 15: The wealthy are the job creators.

Please add your candidates in the comments, and any studies you have found that directly counter them.