Diminishing Marginal Utility of Income and Progressive Taxation: A Critique of The Uneasy Case

A recurring issue in law, economics and politics is how progressive the tax system should be. In 'The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation,' a famous article of forty years ago, the authors pronounced themselves unconvinced by arguments for progressive taxation. In this article, Mark Stein contends that 'The Uneasy Case's' uneasiness is based on a faulty analysis of whether income has diminishing marginal utility.