When the Modigliani-Miller proposition on the irrelevance of capital structure was adjusted to take into account the tax advantages of debt financing, it suggested that the American corporations of the 1950s and the 1960s were operating at levels of debt that were too low Similarly, the tax disadvantages of dividends by comparison with capital gains suggested that corporate emphasis on the former was irrational.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 1141