All Posts Tagged With: "taxation"

How to Create the Illusion of Low Taxes

To the surprise of opponents of big government, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) estimates that taxes at all levels of government take only 9.2 percent of our income, the lowest rate since Harry Truman was president. USA Today and various news-media personalities, like Chris Matthews of MSNBC, have used this statistic to hammer [...]

22Sep2010 | | 1 comment | Continued

The Grasping Macroeconomic Managers

There remains the unalterable fact that if the tax cuts expire, politicians will control the money.

17Sep2010 | | 9 comments | Continued

Paying for Tax Cuts?

Tax cuts don’t cost money; government programs do.

3Sep2010 | | 20 comments | Continued

The Evil of Government Debt

As we’ve seen in the last two issues, Destutt de Tracy, writing in early nineteenth-century France, had solid insights about the market process and government spending as a form of consumption not investment. In light of that, no one will be surprised that Tracy opposed government borrowing. In this day of trillion-dollar-plus federal deficits, his [...]

25Aug2010 | | 3 comments | Continued

The VAT: Not Just Another Tax

Recently there has been a great deal of speculation about how the U.S. government will deal with its massive budget deficits and increasing levels of debt. For readers of The Freeman the answer is rather simple: Since most of what the federal government does goes beyond its “legitimate” role, cut spending. Drastically. Discussions about balancing [...]

25Aug2010 | | 3 comments | Continued

“The Taxing Power, My Dear”

The legal committee soon broke into a row because the legal problems were so terrible. The constitutional problem was the greatest one. How could you get around this business of the State-Federal relationships? It seemed that couldn’t be done. We continued to wrangle about it for days. But one day I went out to tea, [...]

12Jul2010 | | 0 comments | Continued

For the Survival of Democracy: Franklin Roosevelt and the World Crisis of the 1930s

The latest New Deal synthesis is For the Survival of Democracy by veteran historian Alonzo Hamby of Ohio University. What makes Hamby’s research design different is that he describes the development of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal in an international context. Specifically, he weaves the American narrative with events in Britain and Germany in [...]

8Jul2010 | | 0 comments | Continued

Fiscal Force

I know ev’rybody earns; And I carefully compare it with the income-tax returns;” —W. S. Gilbert, Princess Ida April is the cruellest month, for reasons other than what T. S. Eliot had in mind. This is the month in which you must account for yourself to Caesar. The authorities, having relieved you of a goodly [...]

1Jul2010 | | 1 comment | Continued

Higher Income Taxes Are Benign?

In a recent issue of the online magazine Slate, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer attempts to debunk the alleged myth that higher taxes reduce growth. Spitzer opens with the undeniable truth that the “American debate over taxes is ferocious and highly partisan.” If only he had continued to state the obvious, we would not [...]

30Jun2010 | | 11 comments | Continued

Politicians Smother Cities

I like my hometown, but I must admit that New York has problems: high taxes, noise, traffic. Forbes magazine ranks my city the 16th most miserable in America. Ouch! Of course, that makes me wonder: What’s America’s most miserable city? Cleveland, says Forbes. People call it “the Mistake by the Lake.” Cleveland, once America’s sixth-largest [...]

29Jun2010 | | 6 comments | Continued

Plunder! How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation

Karl Marx was right—sort of. He was right in saying that society is riven by class warfare, but he got the classes wrong. It’s not the case that capitalists exploit workers, but rather that tax consumers exploit taxpayers. That truth has long been kept hidden from the average American by deceptive propaganda about the workings [...]

29Jun2010 | | 1 comment | Continued

But Is There Such a Thing as a Free Breakfast?

Back in the mid-eighties I participated in a conference of small business owners. (Very small—my own multinational corporation consists of me, my wife, and a dog. The dog is part-time.) One workshop leader explained that we could no longer deduct 100 percent of business travel meals. Henceforth, we could only deduct 80 percent (that dropped [...]

27Jun2010 | | 0 comments | Continued

Tips to Hike Your Taxes

Taxes are due and refunds are flowing. What’s a good tax hiker to do? Keep his ill-gotten gains or give them back? The New York Times Magazine features a column titled “The Ethicist.” It is basically modern liberalism meets Ann Landers. As rebate checks were being cut, Ms. Tamar Kotelchuck, a resident of Somerville, Massachusetts, [...]

27Jun2010 | | 1 comment | Continued

Socialism of the Spirit

Obesity is approaching epidemic proportions in Canada, studies tell us. Predictably, some busybodies have started promoting the idea of a “fat tax” on snack foods such as chips and cookies, comparable to the “sin taxes” currently imposed on alcohol and tobacco. A surprising percentage of the population seems willing to entertain this idea. According to [...]

27Jun2010 | | 2 comments | Continued

R. C. Hoiles and Public Schooling

In a letter dated May 23, 1946, the libertarian publisher R. C. Hoiles wrote to Leonard E. Read, who would establish the Foundation for Economic Education later that same year. Hoiles advised Read on what he believed was the underlying cause of America’s alarming shift from individual liberty toward socialism: I am inclined to think [...]

20May2010 | | 2 comments | Continued

The Case for Big Government

Could it be that our already immense government is still too small? That’s what some people, including economic journalist Jeff Madrick, would have us believe. The first sentence of The Case for Big Government reads, “It is conventional wisdom in America today that high levels of taxes and government spending diminish America’s prosperity.” While this [...]

20May2010 | | 1 comment | Continued

Comparing the Great Depression to the Great Recession

President Obama has often remarked that the Great Recession (2008–10) is the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. It’s interesting to study the many parallels between the Great Recession and the Great Depression. Causation. The main causes of both crises lie in actions of the federal government. In the case of the Great Depression, [...]

20May2010 | | 59 comments | Continued
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