No sooner do I point out the obvious than an anonymous liberal (no, really — that’s the name of his blog) comes after me.

A Dane tells a reporter that he doesn’t even think it’s worth getting a raise if he’s still working in high-tax Denmark. He doesn’t even think it’s worth responding to job offers from there, and he says it’s because the marginal income tax rate in Denmark is 63 percent. But he’s happy to find jobs outside his native land — in Qatar and in Germany.

Looks like a good argument for supply-side tax policy, doesn’t it?

The anon-lib replies:

The fact that many people would rather live somewhere with lower tax rates says absolutely nothing about the question central to supply-side theory, i.e., whether people work harder when their tax rates are lower.

Well, okay. But this guy in this article — isn’t he saying that he is willing to work harder where tax rates are lower? Is he working in Germany because tax rates there are lower than in Denmark? It sure looks like it to me, if you actually take ten seconds and look at what the Dane in the article said:

“When you are at 63 percent tax, you don’t look forward to the evaluation with the boss to get a raise,” Sorensen said. “You look for more vacation or a training course in the tropics – something that you get the full benefit of.”

So he’s saying that if you’re going to stay in Denmark, you’re going to demand more vacation (i.e. less work), because it isn’t even worth working for more pay when tax rates are at 63 percent. He is saying that the high tax rate is an incentive to seek time off rather than higher pay.

Tell me if I’m wrong, but uh…isn’t that precisely the point I was making?

It shouldn’t surprise me that a liberal would thus ignore reality — it might cause him brain-freeze or something if he actually tries to digest the idea that incentives matter in economics.

UPDATE: From a Dane:

I’m working in Denmark, electrial engineer working in development, and i’ll have to agree. I’m considering moving out, because i dont have any children, so my attachment to here is minimal.
If i get a similar job with half taxes, i’ll be gone tomorrow…Thanks for making me rant before my lunch break :)