Rating: 
Summary: Preach it, Sister!
Review: A cogent, easy-to-read yet well-thought analysis of our current tax system, loopholes and all. Organized in a user-friendly manner, this is a powerful analysis that is within the intellectual reach of anyone interested in the topic. Ms. Shlaes' comments and recommendations are right on target.
Rating: 
Summary: Tax Equalization for school funding does not work
Review: Equalization tax policies directly forcing tax payers redistribute educational monies equally on education. Equalization does not work. It's a socialistic virus starting in Wilmington, Delaware and moved to Maine in 1970 and eventually hit Texas. The most important question facing tax payers is can equality of education spending buy equal performance? The truth suggests the more money pumped into a school has no direct correlation in producing better students. Equalization did not improve test scores. Force distribution of wealth never works.
The Vermont Supreme Court declared local tax policy paying for local school funding as unconstitutional. The court ruled it is not alright to spend more money for one student than another. The racial discrimination protection provided in Brown verse the Board of Education was wrongly applied to economic equality for education. It is wrong because education equality is not a constitutional protected right. The old system made available local taxes paying for ¾ of the cost of school. Money was collected locally and sent to the state and $5,000 returned for each student. Forced equal spending was supported by the Democrats and opposed by the Republicans with Governor Howard Dean supporting equalization.
In 1997, Vermont passed Act 60 generating tax policy effecting 251 towns, splitting the town into two groups: receiving towns (receivers of tax benefits) and senders (receivers of tax cuts). The impact was immediately felt; Dorset received a double property tax portion, Montpelier exposed $680 million dollars in property tax to change, Stratton and Winhall were hit the hardest with a seven fold increase in property tax.
In Serrano verses Priest the court ruled that parts of California must spend about the same amount per pupil. The court case ended local property tax and started plans to force richer neighborhoods to support poorer neighborhoods. Proposition 13 was a defensive measure by citizens too put a tax cap against rising property taxes and set off a national tax cutting effort leading to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 by Ronald Reagan.
Serrano went against traditional school funding structure. Historically, most State Constitutions defined school funding to be provided by local taxes. Here is an excerpt: "A school or schools shall be established in each town by the legislature, for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters to be paid by the town, making proper use of school lands in each town, thereby to enable them to instruct youth a low price." Bottom line, local taxes spent locally is acceptable. It is acceptable because the individual can see what their money has bought and if people don't like what they see, a tax cut will occur. The PTA attempts to reconnect parents to the value added for their child's education. In 1990, $30 million in charitable gifts were funneled through the PTA. If reconnection fails forced tax equalization will have devastating impact on the public system. If money can't buy performance and if complex qualification terms for school monies drive administers into a rat maze, parent will start to examine methods to take back control. Small towns will replace public schools with private schools. Towns are competing for families through their schools, parks, and safety assurances. People will pay money, if they believe their children are getting a desired quality of education, if they don't get the expected education value, they will move to towns were they can get a quality education. People vote with their feet, the Tiebout theory advocated by Charles Tiebout, in 1950.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reading, even for those in denial
Review: Great analysis of the tax situation in the U.S. and how the average citizen is largely in the dark about what they're really paying. The fact that the same citizen is largely and inherently incapable of reading and understanding the current tax code is a good reason for reading this book.Those who are in denial about the oppressiveness of the tax code and the IRS could learn a lot by reading this book with an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: Government Has No Money That It Doesn't Confiscate
Review: I just don't understand how it's considered "greedy" for me to want to keep all of the money I have worked to earn -- but it's somehow NOT greedy and/or lazy and/or selfish for someone to want the government to provide his health care (or pay him when he is unemployed) with money that has simply been confiscated from some other person who performed the work to earn that money. Can somebody explain that to me, please?
Rating:
Summary: Government Has No Money That It Doesn't Confiscate
Review: I just don't understand how it's considered "greedy" for me to want to keep all of the money I have worked to earn -- but it's somehow NOT greedy and/or lazy and/or selfish for someone to want the government to provide his health care (or pay him when he is unemployed) with money that has simply been confiscated from some other person who performed the work to earn that money. Can somebody explain that to me, please?
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Look at How Government Takes More and More!
Review: The 20th century was an arms race between the governments in the United States and its citizens to determine who would control the citizens' income. Government was on the offense and the citizens were on the defense. The citizens lost to date. Taxes went from less than 5 percent of income to 40 percent over that time. Most would agree that we cannot afford another century like that one. This book nicely lays out the history of taxes that take more income and waste a lot of time and effort in the process. The author looks at sales taxes, withholding taxes at work, the marriage penalty in the income tax, whether the housing deduction for interest and taxes is a good thing or not, the problems with taxes on domestic help, property taxes and school support, the social security system, and estate taxes. She doesn't like much of what she sees, and is concerned that reform could simply lead to adding new types of taxes (like a national sales tax while keeping all of the old taxes). The newer the tax or tax idea, it seems like the worse it is working. Her solutions are basically principles to be followed in reforming taxes. I doubt if they will be followed anytime soon. Recent polls show that most Americans are concerned about paying off the national debt and fixing social security before doing anything about cutting taxes. Although most of her observations were good ones, I was a little doubtful about her automatic focus on the high income people being taken to the cleaners unfairly. There was not as much attention paid to benefits that lower income people may be receiving. If you spend time thinking about how to keep your tax bill down, there's not much new in this book. If you are new to all of the ways that government helps you spend your money, this is a good introduction to the subject. The book is well written and pleasant to read. The only drawback I found was that it was a little depressing to be reminded of how much I actually pay to all of the various governments.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Look at How Government Takes More and More!
Review: The 20th century was an arms race between the governments in the United States and its citizens to determine who would control the citizens' income. Government was on the offense and the citizens were on the defense. The citizens lost to date. Taxes went from less than 5 percent of income to 40 percent over that time. Most would agree that we cannot afford another century like that one. This book nicely lays out the history of taxes that take more income and waste a lot of time and effort in the process. The author looks at sales taxes, withholding taxes at work, the marriage penalty in the income tax, whether the housing deduction for interest and taxes is a good thing or not, the problems with taxes on domestic help, property taxes and school support, the social security system, and estate taxes. She doesn't like much of what she sees, and is concerned that reform could simply lead to adding new types of taxes (like a national sales tax while keeping all of the old taxes). The newer the tax or tax idea, it seems like the worse it is working. Her solutions are basically principles to be followed in reforming taxes. I doubt if they will be followed anytime soon. Recent polls show that most Americans are concerned about paying off the national debt and fixing social security before doing anything about cutting taxes. Although most of her observations were good ones, I was a little doubtful about her automatic focus on the high income people being taken to the cleaners unfairly. There was not as much attention paid to benefits that lower income people may be receiving. If you spend time thinking about how to keep your tax bill down, there's not much new in this book. If you are new to all of the ways that government helps you spend your money, this is a good introduction to the subject. The book is well written and pleasant to read. The only drawback I found was that it was a little depressing to be reminded of how much I actually pay to all of the various governments.
Rating:
Summary: YOU -- WHAT YOU OWN -- WHAT YOU DO
Review: The next time you sit down to do your taxes, stop a moment and ask your accountant or tax attorney: "Is the so-called "Income Tax" a tax on income? A most informative statement on page 2580 of the Congressional record of 1943 in regard to the early history of the income-tax law was written by Mr. F. Morse Hubbard, formerly of the legislative drafting research fund of Columbia University, and a former legislative draftsman in the Treasury Department: "The income tax is, therefore, not a tax on income as such. It is an excise tax with respect to certain activities and privileges which is measured by reference to the income which they produce. The income is not the subject of the tax: it is the basis for determining the amount of tax." Next ask your tax professional and/or the IRS: What activities and privileges am I engaged in that are taxable?
Rating: 
Summary: Simplistic Nonsense
Review: This book has so many historical distortions, simplistic arguments, and blind-passion its tough to know where to start. So I'll confine my review to some of the obvious problems she either ignores or skates over... To begin with, Shlaes completely ignores the international picture. Amazingly, America is the LEAST taxed developed nation in the world, yet has the largest military forces (bigger than the next 10 nations COMBINED), the largest road network, the largest criminal justice system, the largest education system, the largest number of public funded colleges, the largest (combined) police force, the largest number of professional fire-fighters and so on and so on. All these huge organisations cost huge amounts of money; a simple yet devastating fact Shales prefers to ignore. Instead she talks of waste and corruption. Well, those are probably inevitable, given the mind-blowing size and complexity of the organisations the US has. Then there's the whining and angry (although passive and prosperous) American middle class, provided with free education, subsidised housing (tax cuts for home buyers), subsidised gasoline, subsidised roads, and so on. In fact this class has some claim to be the most subsidised group in the country. Shales may well be aware of the major paradoxes I've outlined above; how else to explain her hopelessly weak suggestions (worthy of a High School debate) on reforming and and streamlining the system? Ultimately, like every other commentator and politician, Shales cannot escape the contradiction that American citizens have grown to demand and expect the best from their government, yet (unlike any other aspect of national and private life) they expect the best to be provided for almost nothing, as if by magic, by a mysterious entity called "Washington." Without a major rethink of American citizen's expectations and the country's world role, any talk of significant tax cuts will remain limited to misty-eyed dreamers like Shales and her followers.
Rating:
Summary: Breezy Fare
Review: This book is similar To Martin Gross's the Tax Racket. It provides good summaries of the various taxes that we are slammed with by all levels of government. However, the portion of the subtitle telling us what we can do about the problem is short and weak. Elect politicians who will cut our taxes...yeah, ok. The only way the American people will get rid of the IRS and the income tax is if we all collectively decide to not file returns next year and we amend our W-4's so that no witholding tax is taken out. Hell, they can't arrest all of us. Where is the Spirit of 76?
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