Taxes in the Electronic Global Market by Sheldon Richman June 1, 1997 A recent issue of The Economist proclaimed "the disappearing taxpayer." It acknowledged the difficulty governments are beginning to experience in taxing their citizens owing to two phenomena: the mobility of capital in the global marketplace and the shift of commerce to the Internet. The difficulty can only become ...
April 15: Day of Infamy by Sheldon Richman April 1, 1997 April 15 is here again. For many people the day heralds a tax refund. But what are they celebrating? That they loaned the government money interest-free in 1996? Why is it that if the government doesn't withhold enough tax, you may owe interest, but if the government ...
Cutting Taxes Is Selfish by Sheldon Richman April 1, 1997 All right! Finally some basic talk about taxes. How refreshing! Inspiring my utterly sincere glee is a remark by Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers last week. He criticized people who want to cut the estate tax for being selfish. Ouch! That hurt. And the Republicans quickly responded. ...
Stop the Flood of Taxpayer Money by Sheldon Richman March 1, 1997 Once again spring is heralded by swollen rivers in the Midwest. The overflowing Ohio River and its tributaries have caused heartbreak and millions of dollars of damage in several states in the region. And once again a colossal public-policy blunder is being committed: the handing out of millions of taxpayer dollars in ...
Clinton’s State of Mind Address by Sheldon Richman February 1, 1997 President Clinton tells the American people that the "era of big government is over" and that "government is not the solution," but considering what he had to say in his State of the Union Address, he surely does not believe it. Clinton's speech was little more than a laundry list of things ...
More Washington Gibberish by Sheldon Richman September 1, 1996 That recent spike in gasoline prices provided more examples of the strange tongue spoken in the nation's capital. I call it Washington Gibberish. On the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota called the price increase a "crisis." Republican Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, sitting at his side, did not disagree. He joined Dorgan in calling ...
Washington Gibberish by Sheldon Richman January 1, 1996 If English is ever declared the official language of the United States, the biggest upheaval will be in Washington, D.C. That's because they don't speak English in Washington. They speak gibberish. You may not realize that, because gibberish has the same-sounding words and grammatical structure as English. When you hear gibberish, you think you're hearing English. But you're not. ...
Income Taxation by Gerald F. Scully August 1, 1995 In 1913, the minimum marginal tax rate was 1 percent on income of $300,000 or more (measured in 1993 dollars). The top marginal tax rate was 7 percent on income above $7.5 million. Very few people had incomes that met the filing requirement. As a fraction of the ...
Taxation by Jim Russell December 1, 1994 Like many who consider themselves libertarians, I have concluded that taxation, in any form for any purpose, is theft. I agree with the nineteenth-century economist Frederic Bastiat, who called it legal plunder. It ought to be abolished. When I state my position on this matter to others not versed in libertarianism, they invariably jump to the conclusion that I am ...
A Warning from the Past by Charles Adams March 1, 1994 In A.D. 476 Odovacar, a German commander in the Roman army, sacked Rome and took over the imperial throne. That date is usually cited as the end of the Roman Empire. As a political force, Rome did end about that time, but the spirit of Roman civilization had ...
The War on Cash and Privacy by Donald S. McAlvany March 1, 1994 In the former Soviet Union, if the government wanted to apprehend and imprison someone who had committed no crime, they charged him with the catchall crime of "hooliganism." In America, the catchall crime used against organized crime figures or other Americans has for years been RICO statutes or ...
Serfs on the Plantation, Part 4 by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 1993 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 David Koresh and his followers challenged the cult of the omnipotent state. And for that, they paid the ultimate price — death at the hands of United States governmental officials. The message was a powerful one for American serfs: "As long as you behave and obey, ...