Rating: 
Summary: Insightful and interesting look at the tax system
Review: A creed that this book would not endorse. Based on the title, I was expecting more of a violently left-wing, and anti-wealth approach to reorganizing the tax system; guised, as usual, under a healthy dose of fear and loathing parading around as logic. Instead, what ol' Eddie McCaff presents is a completely well founded romp through his refreshingly non-utopian ideal of a "fair" tax code. "Two thumbs up," is what I said after I finished, because in the end, I didn't know if I was being pitched a tax code or a used car; that's just how much panache this guy has for tax talk ladies and gentlemen, and you'll know what I mean after the brisk read. Besides, it's only [$], they're basically paying you to read it.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for Tax Techies
Review: Any [one] can see that the transaction costs of the current income tax system combined with its accompanying incentive to waste make it unworkable from a wealth maximizing perspective. Anyone who understands the current tax system, even a left-wing, ivy league educated law professor has to admit that a consumption tax, coupled with the elimination of the estate tax would better equip America to reduce transaction costs and incentivize saving. "The Mac" lays it all out for the world to see ... are they looking?
Rating:
Summary: Good Advice for China
Review: Edward McCaffery presents a clear and rational argument in this book, which is the most for which one can hope from a liberal law professor. Unfortunately, his proposed policy is inconsistent with certain inalienable rights of ours, such as liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Of course, since most economists refuse to recognize these inalienble rights, I will not fault him too much. This book is definitely worth reading, although I hope that the readers are much more critical of his policy than are his students, who sit idly by while he rallies them to the misinterpreted cause of Robin Hood -- the immoral and unjustifiable notion of taking from the rich to give to the poor.
Rating:
Summary: Tax and A Participatory Democracy
Review: Every American pays taxes in one form or another, but not many of us understand its broader social policy implications. I read this book and it gave me a working understanding of how the dry old tax system affects broader human behavior: How tax affects how each of us saves, spends and invests. Ultimately, the tax system is about what values we as a society want to promote. Here, McCaffery explains how the tax system is wrong-headed by encouraging spending and discouraging saving and challenges us to rethink age-old liberal assumption regarding taxing income, rather than consumption. While a consumption tax is not a new idea and McCaffery certainly is not the architect of it, McCaffery does a good job of synthesizing the literature on taxes and challenges us to rethink the values behind our current tax code.
Rating:
Summary: Tax and A Participatory Democracy
Review: Every American pays taxes in one form or another, but not many of us understand its broader social policy implications. I read this book and it gave me a working understanding of how the dry old tax system affects broader human behavior: How tax affects how each of us saves, spends and invests. Ultimately, the tax system is about what values we as a society want to promote. Here, McCaffery explains how the tax system is wrong-headed by encouraging spending and discouraging saving and challenges us to rethink age-old liberal assumption regarding taxing income, rather than consumption. While a consumption tax is not a new idea and McCaffery certainly is not the architect of it, McCaffery does a good job of synthesizing the literature on taxes and challenges us to rethink the values behind our current tax code.
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING!
Review: Mr. McCaffery's analysis is superb. This is a must-read for anyone who either thinks their income tax is too high or that the tax system is in desperate need of a major change (that's just about everybody- isn't it).
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING!
Review: Mr. McCaffery's analysis is superb. This is a must-read for anyone who thinks their income tax is too high or that the tax system is in desperate need of a major change (that's just about everybody- isn't it).
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING!
Review: Mr. McCaffery's analysis is superb. This is a must-read for anyone who thinks their income tax is too high or that the tax system is in desperate need of a major change (that's just about everybody- isn't it).
Rating: 
Summary: I was skeptical but he convinced me.
Review: Normally I pass by the business books on my way to the science books but this one caught my eye. I was skeptical but he convinced me. It's a tax on consumption that is not flat like a sales tax. Every year you would fill out a form as you do now. Poor and many middle class people spend all they earn so they would end out much as now. Rich come in two types,
(1) those who luxuriate and (2) those who build businesses (and jobs!). They would come out very differently!
The idea is that you spend what you earn plus what you borrow minus what you save. Financial institutions would report borrowing and saving on forms like W-2 so you would compute your consumption from that plus earnings. He wasn't very clear (anyway, I wasn't) about the example of buying a house. I believe on a $270,000 house you would be effectively spending $10,000/year for 27 years and this expenditure could be taxed at a progressive rate. There would be no capital gains taxes (because they are mostly inflation taxes).
Rating:
Summary: I was skeptical but he convinced me.
Review: Normally I pass by the business books on my way to the science books but this one caught my eye. I was skeptical but he convinced me. It's a tax on consumption that is not flat like a sales tax. Every year you would fill out a form as you do now. Poor and many middle class people spend all they earn so they would end out much as now. Rich come in two types,
(1) those who luxuriate and (2) those who build businesses (and jobs!). They would come out very differently!
The idea is that you spend what you earn plus what you borrow minus what you save. Financial institutions would report borrowing and saving on forms like W-2 so you would compute your consumption from that plus earnings. He wasn't very clear (anyway, I wasn't) about the example of buying a house. I believe on a $270,000 house you would be effectively spending $10,000/year for 27 years and this expenditure could be taxed at a progressive rate. There would be no capital gains taxes (because they are mostly inflation taxes).
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