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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Taxation And Morality, September 8, 2009
This review is from: Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform (Hardcover)
There have been plenty of books and policy papers written, plenty of speeches and television and radio interviews, about the economic reasons that high progressive taxation is a bad idea. We've heard many times about how it restricts innovation by discouraging investments, or how higher tax rates actually have the seemingly perverse impact of decreasing government revenue, while lower tax rates lead to <em>more</em> money in the Treasury. Those arguments have been made and re-made, stated and re-stated, so many times that most fiscal conservatives can restate them on their own.
What we haven't seen very often, though, is an argument about tax policy from a moral perspective, an examination of the impact that tax policy has on society in the manner that it punishes good behavior and rewards bad behavior. That is exactly the argument that Leslie Carbone takes up here, and it's a welcome addition to the debate.
Through a combination of history, economic analysis, and good old-fashioned common sense, Carbone demonstrates quite clearly how tax policies over the past 70 years or longer have succeeded in sending the wrong signals to citizens and helped to encourage behaviors that have adverse consequences for individuals and society as a whole. In one compelling section, Carbone examines the immorality behind the IRS's tax enforcement mechanism.
The book concludes with an insightful analysis of the various tax reform proposals that have been made in recent years, ranging from the flat tax to the national sales tax, and makes clear that only reform that allows the people to keep more of what they earn can ever be considered moral.
For a quick read, this is an excellent edition to the voluminous literature condemning the leviathan that has become America's tax system.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Outstanding Book on Taxation, September 6, 2009
This review is from: Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform (Hardcover)
Slaying Leviathan is an excellent mix of history lesson and moral argument for and against taxation in the United States. This is a well written and researched book. It is written in a language that is easy for the average person to grasp the concepts without being condescending. Ms Carbone makes several profound points equating the compensation we receive (money) for our labor and progressive and regressive taxes. She also makes an excellent analysis of the current suggestions for tax reform under the rubric of morality and "fairness".
I learned more from reading Ms Carbone's book than from sitting 4 years of high school and 2 years of college history and civics. I recommend that Slaying Leviathan be used as a primmer on taxation in any economics or government class. Home schoolers take note.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A valiant attempt still falls short, December 3, 2009
This review is from: Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform (Hardcover)
Leslie Carbone conducts a sufficiently comprehensive yet readable survey of American tax history. The author crisply points out the moral perils that have attended taxation throughout (a relevant period of) history. Where the work falls short, in my view, is in lighting the path out of the moral morass, and this is especially interesting because as my sister in Christ, Leslie Carbone definitely recognises the sin nature of man as manifested in government.
Ideas have consequences. I am fond of saying that the tombstone of a civilisation may be laid at precisely that point where truth is no longer defended because it cannot be known. In no area of American life is this more true than with respect to the 96-year-long check-skimming scam run by the U.S. Congress. In the Age of Obamanation, these scoundrels no longer even attempt to mask their disdain for the Supreme Law, and for their constituents -- the working hosts of their parasitic lives.
The author entirely misses this, the century-long real game in American 'tax policy'. Painting the IRS as the black-hooded executioner to mask its own scandalous corruption, Congress skates free through trillion-dollar heists; smiling all the while. Note the member of Congress' attitude? It is of the untouchable Latin American drug kingpin. Beyond the law because they WRITE the law, and then defraud their hosts about what the law says.
A far shorter read than Ms. Carbone's book -- and I promise you, a far more educational and valuable one to your future -- is the "Tax Honesty Primer" (Google it) online. It is not only a much shorter read (ca. 2 hours) but takes the fraudulent bull by the horns, and shows the hapless Taxpayer not only the history of the largest financial fraud in human history -- but exactly how we 67 million non-filers escaped the "fair share" line.
I would still buy Leslie Carbone's book; it's an excellent survey and analysis. But there are far more efficacious ways forward, for those who have had their fill of thieves and scoundrels; who are willing to perform due diligence; and who have stopped fearing their employees.
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