Arthur Laffer that U.S. tax rates had in fact reached such extreme levels." Laffer is currently an economic adviser to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, who in 2012 zeroed out state tax liability for approximately 330,000 of the top wage earners in the state. The state, which had previously had a budget surplus, experienced a budget deficit of about $200 million in 2012. Drastic cuts to state funding for education and infrastructure have been implemented because of the budget deficits. Brownback's tax overhaul was described in a June 2017 article in "The Atlantic" as the United States' "most aggressive experiment in conservative economic
To each according to his contribution concept also formed the basic definition of socialism for its pre-Marxist proponents, including Ricardian socialists, classical economists, and individualist anarchists. "To each according to his contribution" was a concept espoused by many members of the socialist and labor movement. Examples of this can be found from Ferdinand Lassalle's and Eugen Dühring's statements to Leon Trotsky's writings. However, it was Vladimir Lenin, inspired by Marx's writing on the subject in his "Critique of the Gotha Programme", who claimed the principle to be a fundamental element of socialism within Marxist theory. Libertarian socialist thinkers, such as American anarchist Benjamin Tucker, defined socialism