Week in Insights: Tax Progressivity Can Go Further Than We Think

It’s generally accepted that a progressive tax is fairer than a regressive tax, but sales and use tax regressivity persists. A common explanation for this points to administration—something like, “We don’t want to make every convenience store transaction require consumers to prove their income for the year.”

That kind of thinking is a textbook example of availability bias: We can’t readily imagine a different system, so we assume it can’t exist.

But Finland’s traffic safety record might expand one’s conception of what’s possible.

The country has about one-third the traffic fatalities per capita of those in the US. Good road ...