By Mike Ellerbrock

Though death and taxes are inevitable, reaching consensus on their ramifications is not. What happens after death is the privy of the deceased. What happens when taxes are raised or lowered is less mysterious, though commonly misunderstood.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and teammate Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, favor lowering income and capital gains taxes on the assumption that wealthy citizens will use their gains to generate more jobs for everyone else. Their logic seems intuitively reasonable: A rising tide lifts all boats. But is it true?

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 Ellerbrock is director of the Center for Economic Education at Virginia Tech and a deacon for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. He teaches a course on Science & Religion: Friends or Foes?