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Colin Walsh

Professor Granillo

English 101

26 September 2018

It’s okay to be confused; it’s better to be informed

People are intimidated to talk about complex issues, especially when it involves rhetoric.

Rhetoric in layman's terms is the art of persuasion. Rhetoric comes in three types; logos is the

method of persuading your audience with reason, using facts and figures, ethos is used as a

means of convincing your reader with the authority or credibility of the persuader, and pathos is

a way of convincing the audience of an argument by creating an emotional response to a call to

action or a convincing story. When you read an article about a subject are not familiar with, the

author has to convince you that their view on the matter is the correct one, while also educating

you at the same time. This dynamic needs to be without oversight, especially when you talk

about an event that has personally affected their lives and shaped their bias. The great imbalance

between the taxation of the elite and everyone else in Joseph E. Stiglitz’s article, “A Tax System

Stacked against the 99 Percent” is mainly explained in the appeals of ethos in how the decisions

of these laws are justified to the eyes of the beholder, pathos in the effects these taxes might have

affected the target audience, and logos with the use of large quantifiable numbers to help the

audience understand the situation. All these points hold a link into a call to change the system by

hopefully giving the “99 percent” the tools needed for an honest change.

The purpose of this article might be for education on the injustice American tax system, a

matter that is intimidating to some and to enlighten others on how true the matter might be. The
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use of logos and ethos is very pivotal to the conversation at hand. The foundation of the article

relies on numbers and examples from the past, “ The top marginal income tax rate peaked at 94

percent during World War II and remained at 70 percent throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s; it is

now 39.6 percent.” (287) . Examples like these give the audience the perspective to tackle the

problem if they choose to. Throughout this article, the most common appeals used to persuade

are logos and ethos. While there are sections that do contain elements of pathos, the focus is

directed towards education and not opinions. However, with a concept that can be considered

foreign and complex, it is hard to tell if the information presented to us is credible.

For anyone who isn’t already majoring or planning to major in the world of economics,

it’s unlikely at all to find any source of information that can be as universal as film or other

forms of digital media. The use of ethos is quite effective in establishing how believable he is in

his writings. With a complex and most intimidating subject in the American tax system, you

need someone who has their own grasp on the reality on the matter. That’s why this source is not

only credible, it’s written by the most qualified person around. “ Joseph E. Stiglitz, the winner of

the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001, teaches at Columbia University…a senior vice president

and chief economist at the World Bank, and served as chairman of the Council of Economic

Advisors.” (286). So if there was any doubt before regarding the author’s credibility, hopefully,

that is cleared up now. It’s not every day you can read from a professionals point of view and

have it in a sense be geared against the former profession that he excels in. Otherwise, we would

be stuck with a piece lost in the sea of contradiction, i.e., a paper about economics that is not

considered for an outside perspective. With all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed for the author’s

credentials and assured the proper tone through its appeals, let’s see how these appeals actually

stack up.
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Based on the foundation of appeals, the world of politics is mainly centered on ethics,

that is why the use of ethos is important. Even more so, why would we want to care enough

about tax policy to ask for change? That seems to be the million dollar question the author wants

to ask. Perhaps it’s despite the many promises to make taxes fairer or to have less of them

overall, many political opponents show hypocrisy and double down on the current status quo.

“Mitt Romney,… admitted he only paid 14 percent of his income in 2011, even as he notoriously

complained that 47 percent of Americans are freeloaders.” (Stiglitz, 290). It also doesn’t help

that large companies like Apple and Amazon pretty much bend the system to their will. The

main point is, how can we trust these kinds of people to have our best interest if they only look

out for themselves. Plus, if that is really the case, then we must ask ourselves if the system is fair

or not.

Surprisingly, only recently we have questioned the status quo. Even as early as 2001,

people have been losing their faith and only now been questioning the system. “Research in

recent years has linked the tax rates at the top, sluggish growth and inequality.” (Stiglitz, 292).

That quote was in perspective within George W. Bush’s reign, and this kind of stuff still

happens. The worst of it was yet to come for the 2008 market crash. Even then the law hadn’t

caught on to the pattern. According to the authors rhetoric, however, he’s most likely implying

that the government doesn’t care and it’s up to the people to take charge of the situation. So now

we need to see the emotional factor need to work in this argument.

A subject of discussion as sensitive as politics can be comparable to walking on a

minefield, that’s why the use of pathos is crucial and should be used in moderation. In this

article, however, the author seems to acknowledge that the use of pathos is necessary for
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producing a call to action and a sense of shock. In his own writing, his use of pathos is not

entirely emotional with layers of logos for support. “What should shock and outrage us is that as

the top 1 percent has grown extremely rich, the effective tax rates they pay have markedly

decreased”. (Stiglitz, 287). With language like this, it easy to see how people can be invested

despite all the scary numbers within the surrounding paragraphs.

Your argument is only as good as your sources and Joseph E. Stiglitz has plenty. With his

use of logos, Joseph E. Stiglitz can turn a difficult situation into a more understandable one. It

also helps in an unintentional way to use your logos as a sort of ethos or even a little pathos.

“Denmark…a top tax rate of 60 percent…making more than $54,900…the United States, 39.6

percent… $400,000[$450,000 for a couple]). (Stiglitz, 289) This use of perspective grants a

universal understanding into the mindset of the economy and starts to create an emotional

connection through context. This if anything creates one of the foundations to better understand

the point the author is trying to get across, which is exactly what you want if your goal is to

educate.

Through the use of the different appeals, Joseph E. Stiglitz helps to gain more clarity on

one of the perspectives of how the American tax system is unfair. The use of logos helps better

quantify the gravity of the situation and the author helps with gaining a perspective on how much

of a difference the situation is to others. The use of ethos allows the audience to question the

ideas that go into the foundation of this system and how it truly affects them. Pathos finally plays

an equally important role in connecting with the audience. This will hopefully be turned into

passion towards on changing the system. With everything said and done, the rhetoric provided
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was very strong, and hopefully made the daunting world of American economics slightly more

comfortable to face so that we can all improve our lives.

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Works Cited

Stiglitz, E Joseph. A Tax System Stacked against the 99 Percent. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and

Russel Durst. 4th. New York: W.W Norton & Company, Inc, 2018. Textbook. 24 September 2018.