TAX WRITE-OFFS: One Way to Keep the U.S. Expanding

IF the U.S. could find a permanent peacetime method to spur industry to build new plants and modernize old ones—thus achieving the higher productivity which brings down prices and raises real wages—the consumer would benefit enormously. The U.S. has achieved such expansion in wartime through the use of "accelerated amortization," otherwise known as the "quick tax write-off." This permits the writing off of defense-essential plants and equipment in five years instead of the 20 normally required by the Internal Revenue Bureau. In World War I, this practice spurred the building of $650 million in new facilities; in World War...