[.ca] The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy and ... (ISBN 0156011522)

From Amazon.com:
Americans are being taxed to death--literally, says author Amity Shlaes in The Greedy Hand. At work or out shopping, upon marriage or even after death, we are paying more in taxes than ever before, according to Shlaes, a Wall Street Journal editorial writer. The average family with two wage-earners is now seeing almost 40 percent of its money go to local, state, and federal taxes. "The greedy hand of government"--first described by American revolutionary Thomas Paine--is greedier than ever, creating a situation ripe for tax reform, if not revolt, Shlaes writes. "We think of our forefathers who felt compelled to rebel against the Crown for 'imposing Taxes on us without our consent.' We know we live in a democracy, and so must have chosen this arrangement. Yet nowadays we find ourselves feeling that taxes are imposed on us 'without our consent'," she writes. Chapter by chapter, and in great detail, Shlaes analyzes the tremendous burdens imposed by a wide range of taxes. She assails the marriage penalty, for example, and exposes problems with Social Security and the estate tax. And she documents how Americans feel increasingly unhappy with what government does with their money and shows how people go to great lengths to avoid taxes--driving across state lines to escape a sales tax, for instance. Shlaes calls for political leaders to overhaul the nation's tax code and suggests starting with guiding principles like the following: "Taxes have to be simple;" "Taxes have to be lower;" and "It's time to privatize Social Security." The Greedy Hand warns that the tax system damages the economy and hurts working people, and is a good read for anyone who wants to rail intelligently about taxes. --Dan Ring

YOU -- WHAT YOU OWN -- WHAT YOU DO:
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?

Simplistic Nonsense:
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.

Silly stuff from someone who likes unemployment:
As the title says this is silly, political posturing by someone who has hers and doesn't particularly care if people are out of work. Maybe she doesn't care if you're on the dole.

On the Cost of Paying More and More:
When George Washington was president, taxes were few. Since then, times have really gotten expensive. The 20th century especially 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. Every year, I find April 15 more and more depressing.

Government Has No Money That It Doesn't Confiscate:
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?