This is a well written book on a notoriously dry subject. I learned of it from an excerpt in the Wall Street Journal.
The book is divided into 4 sections. Part 1 deals with Taxes, specifically defining taxes as the price government places on work. He reviews corporate, personal, capital gains and estate taxes, and discusses why each is a hindrance to either work or savings. He further advocates bulldozing the tax code and starting anew (although he doesn't believe in completely abolishing taxes), and uses examples from popular culture of people we all know to demonstrate how each type of tax is a disincentive (example, The Rolling Stones leaving England after their income taxes were raised to 98%). He does make the point that the government running deficits is not bad.
Part 2 is about regulation. He makes the point that government is not staffed necessarily by the "best and brightest" of any industry, and that, if left to their own devices, industry would self-regulate. He makes an example of drug companies developing only safe drugs, because it would be bad for them to be killing their patients. I'm not certain that self-regulation would work in all cases, but his rationale is solid and well laid out.
Part 3 is about Trade. He says that free trade is good, and trade deficits are OK. He also makes the point that jobs die and new ones are created, and outsourcing manufacturing to other countries enables everyone to get more "stuff", because it can more affordably be made elsewhere. Again, I'm not sure I buy this, because the best jobs for the majority of folks are those that create something from nothing, such as manufacturing or mining, not those in the service or retail industries. Where value is added to something (steel becoming cars, for example), more money can be paid to workers than where money is simply traded for goods made elsewhere. He cites Apple as paying an average of $70,000 per person in California, and says they couldn't sustain those jobs if Apple products were made here. That may be, but not all of the jobs are paying nearly $70K, I'm sure. I'm not convinced on this one.
Part 4 discusses Money. Most specifically, he discusses Currency (US Dollars) versus the value of gold. He is clearly not a fan of Nixon's policy of having removed the link between the US Dollar and Gold. This is also a topic that warrants much more thought.
Overall, this is a thought provoking book, whether you agree or not. I think freshmen in college ought to be required to read it, to further their understanding of the basics of economics in a non-boring way, and the rest of us ought to read it just so we're better informed when we hear of what our government is doing, and how it affects us.
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Meereque
Fascinating, still reading it.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 6, 2015
