Corporate Profits and Caplan's Challenge
A recent poll states that "Fully 65% of Americans agree with the idea that, in general, corporations make too much profit." Or, in other words, a clear majority of Americans would like corporate taxes to be higher. I will make no attempt to argue for or against this belief, but merely submit it as another response to Caplan's Challenge. If you do not recall, Caplan's Challenge is to find policies that a majority of Americans oppose (yes, you can "oppose" low taxes).
The link comes from Katherine Mangu-Ward on the Reason blog. Interestingly, she also mentions Bryan Caplan, but in a different way than I do: as evidence that American voters are irrational (I thought of Caplan before reading her full post; everyone must have Caplan on the brain).
For previous responses to Caplan's Challenge, see Jason's original post with several example and my posts on drug legalization, eminent domain, and farm subsidies/fiscal policy. (Am I missing any? I never do these link-embedded lists.)
I hasten to point out that people agreeing that corporations make too much
profit is not the same as increasing their tax rate. Such people might
think firms need to be broken up (the logic being that they are de facto
monopolies or cartels), required to pay their employees more, have more
environmental regulation, etc etc.
Either way, it is a call for a new law or tougher enforcement of a current
law that decreases the profits of corporations. It is still a valid
response to Caplan's Challenge, since this law or enforcement is currently
not being implemented.