Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Who pays the tax?
Who pays the tax?
Dec 7, 2025 4:05 AM

Note: This is the eleventhpost in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics.

Who bears the burden of a tax, the buyer or the seller? Or what about the health insurance mandate in Obamacare—does the employer or the worker pay the tax? In this video, Marginal Revolution University examines these questions and explains why the more elastic side of the market tends to pay a smaller share of a tax.

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Previous in series:How to read a supply curve

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
7 Figures: Marriage, family, and economics in 2017
The 2017 American Family Surveywas designed to understand the “lived experiences of Americans in their relationships and families” andprovide “context for understanding Americans’ life choices, economic experiences, attitudes about their own relationships, and evaluations of the relationships they see around them.” Here are seven figures you should know from this recently released survey: 1. Most respondents believe economic issues are one of the core challenges facing families. People who had experienced an economic crisis in the past year (41 percent),...
This Thanksgiving, be thankful for the low cost of food
Your Thanksgiving dinner this year may cost less than a meal at your local fast food restaurant. According to an informal price survey conducted by theAmerican Farm Bureau Federation(AFBF), the average cost of this year’s Thanksgiving meal for ten people is $49.12—less than $5 per person. “For the second consecutive year, the overall cost of Thanksgiving dinner has declined,” says AFBF Director of Market Intelligence John Newton. “The cost of the dinner is the lowest since 2013 and second-lowest since...
Religion & Liberty: Broetje’s big garden
Broetje Orchards For this fall edition of Religion & Liberty, the cover story focuses heavily on an autumn staple: the apple. Over the summer I observed an Acton-sponsored event for pastors in Walla Walla, Washington. During this event, several Acton staff and event attendees had a chance to tour Broetje Orchards in Prescott, Washington, and meet several members of the Broetje family. This family not only runs one of the biggest fruit providers in the nation but also constantly finds...
‘Let them eat aid’: The error of a ‘Marshall Plan for Africa’
European Parliament President Antonio Tajani has called for Europe to provide an ambitious “Marshall Plan for Africa,” something they have debatedfor more than a decade. The proposed $47 billion aid package would emulate the U.S. plan that purportedly saved much of Europe from embracing Marxism after World War II – but Religion & Liberty Transatlanticauthor Ángel Carmona warns that historical and economic reality may put a damper on the e. The efficacy and operation of the Marshall Plan, implemented under...
Are you an ideological robot?
Since you’re reading this post I assume you spend a lot of time online. You likely engage between dozens and hundreds of people every day, which raises the question: How do you know the people you engage with on social media are not robots? How do you know the content you’re reading isn’t produced by some android? How do you know that I’m not a robot? You could probably think of reasons why you assume I’m not a robot (i.e.,...
The tradeoff between fun and wages
Note: This is post #57 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. If you had to choose, would you rather be a sewer inspector spending your days underground or a lifeguard on the beach? Most would say that being a lifeguard is a more fun job, but a sewer inspector has higher wages pensate for the less-fun aspects of the job. In this video, Marginal Revolution University discusses the tradeoff between fun and wages and show how this illustrates...
Poland’s young people love free markets, not fascism: A view from Poland
According to the international media, Poland’s March of Independence this weekend portends a growing threat of fascism in Eastern Europe. However, the media accounts may not be entirely accurate, and Polish young people fervently reject the underpinnings of fascism – because of their support for the free market. Polish writer Marcin Rzegocki explores international media coverage of this weekend’s Polish Independence Day march in a new essay forReligion & Liberty Transatlantic. He finds that “Poland’s March of Independence was not...
Video: Rev. Robert Sirico and R. R. Reno debate the merits of the free market
Free market economics is a subject worth repeatedly visiting, to examine its merits and question its possible drawbacks. The idea of free markets has e under fire by some conservative thinkers, including editor of First Things magazine, R. R. Reno, prompting a response in defense of free markets from Rev. Robert Sirico, co-founder and president of the Acton Institute. On November 7 and 8, Reno and Sirico were given the chance to discuss and defend their position on free markets....
The Communist who praised freedom, property, and morality
Today’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic features a biography of the forgotten architect of perestroika, Alexander Yakovlev (1923-2005). Born to Communist parents, rising to e the head of propaganda in the Soviet Union, Yakovlev came to embrace freedom and expose the horrors of Marxist-Leninist rule – not least, the persecution of people of faith. In the pantheon of late figures who contributed to the fall of Communism, Yakovlev deserves more notoriety than he receives, argues Kaetana Leontjeva-Numaviciene in her essay. Although...
Start-up nations: Are ‘floating cities’ a frontier for freedom?
From the mega-church municipalities of Nigeria to the ”private cities” of India, swaths of entrepreneurial pioneers are responding to the challenges of urbanization and political disorder with new approaches to governance munity transformation. As of now, the majority of that practical experimentation has been a “privatization of necessity,” occurring mostly in disrupted areas of the developing world with a focus on solving immediate economic problems. Yet those same ideas are starting to pick up steam in modernized countries as well,...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved