[A version of this review of How Capitalism Saved America: the Untold History Of Our Country, from the Pilgrims to the Present by Thomas J. DiLorenzo (New York: Crown Forum, 2004) appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 8.1 ] One advantage that Austrian economists have over those in the mainstream is that they often specialize
The fifteenth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (PL 101-336), signed into law by President Bush I on July 26, 1990, has come and gone. This law, in the words of Lew Rockwell , “has somehow managed to brand every disabled person as a pariah, made them more expensive to hire, and caused the truly disabled to experience even
Review of The FairTax Book , by Neal Boortz and John Linder (Regan Books, 2005). Syndicated talk show host Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder (R-GA) have joined forces to write a book on the FairTax Plan—a proposal to replace the current system of federal income taxes, corporate taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes, capital gains taxes,
Are there any “good” reasons to not shop at Wal-Mart? We have been given plenty of “bad” reasons by the likes of not only New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Sojourners magazine, but also our friends at Chronicles and The American Conservative magazines, who are parroting the far left. According to them, Wal-Mart destroys jobs, puts mom &
In his new book, Flat Tax Revolution (Regnery, 2005), which is subtitled Using a Postcard to Abolish the IRS , Steve Forbes pulls no punches when describing the federal income tax code: A monster of a system. Abominably, appallingly confusing. A multi-headed hydra of countless brackets, deductions, and exemptions. Our horrifically heavy,
Advocates of replacing the income tax with the FairTax — a consumption tax in the form of a national retail sales tax (NRST) on new goods and services — regularly point to the complexity of the tax code, the millions of hours and dollars wasted on compliance costs, the evils of the withholding tax, and the abuses of the IRS to bolster their case
One of the great but long-forgotten works of political economy from the nineteenth century was not written by a politician or an economist—it was written by the Baptist minister Francis Wayland (1796–1865). He was equally an author, a preacher, a teacher, a pastor, and an administrator. After a brief period of study for the ministry, and an even
It’s tax time again. Although many Americans will have to work beyond April 15 just to make enough to pay their taxes ( Tax Freedom Day falls on April 30 this year), the income tax is the tax that infuriates Americans the most. And rightly so, since it is the primary means of funding the interventionist-welfare state. According to the
[The Lou Church Memorial Lecture in Religion and Economics at the 2008 Austrian Scholars Conference at the Mises Institute. An MP3 audio version of this talk is available for download . You can see the video here .] The concept of the just price is the basis of a great deal of erroneous economic thought that permeates our supposedly free market,
Introduction Keeping 100 Percent of Your Paycheck The FairTax Plan The FairTax Tax Code A Personal Note FairTax: Lies The FairTax Rate Price Deflation The Real Issue Notes As a critic of the national retail sales tax plan known as the FairTax, I take Neal Boortz’s new book on the FairTax very personally. The book is titled FairTax: The Truth:
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.