Who's the Fairest of Them All? The Truth about Opportunity, Taxes, and Wealth in America [Hardcover]

Stephen Moore (Author), Glenn Hubbard (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2012

President Obama has declared that the standard by which all policies and policy outcomes are judged is fairness. He declared in 2011 that "we've sought to ensure that every citizen can count on some basic measure of security. We do this because we recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any moment, might face hard times, might face bad luck, might face a crippling illness or a layoff." And that, he says, is why we have a social safety net. He says that returning to a standard of fairness where anyone can get ahead through hard work is the "issue of our time." And perhaps it is.

This book explores what it means for our economic system and our economic results to be "fair." Does it mean that everyone has a fair shot? Does it mean that everyone gets the same amount? Does it mean the government can assert the authority to forcibly take from the successful and give to the poor? Is government supposed to be Robin Hood determining who gets what? Or should the market decide that? The surprising answer: nations with free market systems that allow people to get ahead based on their own merit and achievement are the fairest of them all.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen Moore is senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal editorial page and a member of the editorial board. He is also an economic commentator for CNBC TV and Fox News Channel, where he appears daily commenting on economic, fiscal policy, and political issues of the day. His most recent books include Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain its Economic Superpower Status (Threshold, 2011).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 136 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; 1st edition (October 9, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594036845
• ISBN-13: 978-1594036842
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 90 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Guide for Real Tax Fairness October 10, 2012

By prettywoman

Format:Hardcover

Another terrific tome from Steve! No nonsense revelations about what it means to be fair when it comes to the government confiscating our earnings based on success. Steve lays out exactly what is "fair" and why - a flat tax, each person with "skin in the game".

Our current tax code punishes those who work hard while it rewards those who sit back and contibute nothing but an outstretched hand asking for more. The achievers who build things, hire people and make the wheels of the economy spin and produce are bearing the burden of almost half of the "takers". Romney and Ryan need to carry this book around and read it outloud at their rallies!

50 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Concise Supply-Side Treatise October 17, 2012

By A Rationalist

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Stephen Moore, Senior Economics writer at the WSJ and frequent collaborator with Art Laffer, has published a timely reminder of the supply-side policies that are absolutely essential if the US is to escape the current economic morass. Supply-side economics can be distilled down to the ineluctable premise that 'incentives matter' from a behavioral standpoint. The result, as Art Laffer is fond of stating, is that the more you tax something, the less you are likely to get of it. A stunningly simple concept that is hard for the average liberal to understand because it requires counterintuitive, second-derivative thinking (lowering tax rates can actually increase revenues by growing the pie!). The problem of voter susceptibility to self-defeating economic policies, based on first-derivative reasoning, was brilliantly detailed by Bryan Caplan in his 2007 book, "The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies." Caplan posits that voters are irrational and have systematically biased ideas concerning economics and specifically the "anti-market bias" that Obama is leveraging with his tired 'fairness' rhetoric. It is poisonously self-destructive and emblematic of the 'liberal paradox,' whereby policies meant to help the poor and disenfranchised actually wind-up hurting those very same constituencies. Fortunately, we have a live "A/B" test taking place right now in the US, via our federalist system, with some states lowering taxes to attract business while others - California most notably - look to commit financial suicide by raising the top marginal rate to over 13%. To use my favorite quote/analogy from Laffer & Moore's "Rich States, Poor States" (2nd Edition): "Robin Hood had a progressive stealing structure. You recognize the model don't you? Doesn't it sound like the California Government? How long would it take you to learn not to go through the forest?" The answer, from businesses and "the rich" if Prop 30 passes, will be "not very."

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Most Important Books of 2012 October 29, 2012

By Bernard Chapin VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

All around us are examples of state governments and individual localities in America going broke, and being unable to pay off their debts. Yet our federal government continues to run up its bills and ratchet up its level of borrowing. The net product of our government's duplicity, chicanery, and money printing will be a citizenry without a sustainable future. We will, eventually, bring the third world to our shores. We are all on the hook about 50 grand for the debts our politicians have taken out in our name, and all we have is bankruptcy to show for it. Enter Stephen Moore, one of the brightest stars in the field of economics, and a guy that President Obama completely ignored when he said that economists on both sides agree with his policies. That's a complete joke, and Mr. Obama would be wise to make a phonecall to Thomas Sowell before making such a risible statement. But Moore as well has been a consistent, ingenious, and well-spoken critic of statism over the years and his television appearances--along with this text and another Encounter Books publication---illustrates that he is a man who understands perfectly the current dysfunction that is the state's relationship with our finances. This book is in keeping with the one he wrote in 2010 with Art Laffer in terms of its indict of pseudo-Keynesian over-spending in bad times and then our present over-spending and money borrowing in good times. When will we balance our budget? Never, unless the left is removed from power. Who's the Fairest of Them All? is brief but the perfect criticism of a dissolute age. It's a mere 120 or so pages but Moore's analysis is devoid of fluff. His chapters reveal what REAL fairness is and that forced equality can lead to total poverty. I agree with him about the flat tax and probably enjoyed Chapter 4 the most as it reveals which citizens are the ones that really pay the taxes in America. I certainly hope that he's wrong about a 76% tax rate being in our nation's future though, but after a few decades of tax, borrow, and spend the federocracy will have no one left to steal from...except us.