Postwar German tax experts invoked a ‘psychological breaking point’ beyond which taxpayers rebel.

Evidence

According to Schmölders and many of his colleagues, a general overhaul of the German taxation system was necessary because the taxation levels that resulted from “dictatorship and the war economy” impeded rationalization and risk-taking. In their report for the German Ministry of Finance, most taxation experts agreed that exceedingly high taxes would undermine the market economy itself. While there were some dissenting voices, arguing that the potential to change the wealth distribution by means of taxation was higher, most experts assumed that above a rather low “psychological breaking point” (using the English term in their report), tax resistance would intensify and tax morale decrease. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 324

Categorization

• QUESTION: The English term ‘psychological breaking point’ in a German finance ministry report is intriguing — where did this concept come from, and who imported it?