Taxes Have Consequences

An Income Tax History of the United States

By: Arthur B. Laffer PhD, Brian Domitrovic PhD, Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield PhD

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

The definitive history of the effect of the income tax on the economy.

Ever since 1913, when the United States first imposed the income tax via constitutional amendment, the top rate of that tax has determined the fate of the American economy. When the top rate has been high, as in the late 1910s, the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1970s, the response of those with money and capital has been to curtail real economic activity in favor of protecting assets and income streams. Huge declines have come to the economy in these circumstances. The most brutal example was the Great Depression itself. When the top tax rate has been cut and held at reduced levels—as in the 1920s, the 1960s, in the long boom of the 1980s and 1990s, and briefly in the late 2010s—astonishing reversals have occurred. The rich have brought their money out of hiding and put it to work in the economy. The huge swings in the American economy since 1913 have had an inverse relationship to income tax rates.

©2022 Arthur B. Laffer, PhD, Brian Domitrovic, PhD, and Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield, PhD (P)2022 Kalorama

Must Read For Supply Side Economics

Art Laffer is done it again as he is clearly articulated the need for supply side economics and to continually use and review the Laffer curve in policy making. Taxation ultimately hurts the economy as clearly demonstrated.

Educational

A great educational book. Understand how they use taxes for and against us. You need to read this book to look at the history of taxes.

Taxes, increases and cuts, recessions and growth

A history of US taxation from 1913. Links tax cuts and increases to recessions and economic growth. It should be required reading for politicians voting on tax legislation.

Informative

Author does a great job putting the tax cuts in historical perspective and points out good and bad decisions and their impact of both Republican and Democrat administrations. He dispels myths of WWII ending the Depression, and a number of interesting facts. Including the competitive nature of taxation federally and the states. Fascinating book, worth the read.

Cognitive Dissonance Documented

Who can believe it -- lower tax rates bring in more revenues, but case after case for a century of evidence, from Coolidge to Trump, show us that human nature is the missing element in the math of tax receipts. The rich have the means and motivation to delay, defer, or expatriate their income or wealth when it is overly penalized. That seems hard to admit, but it's like any other kind of science denial. Look at the evidence and then show me your response, Big Spenders.

Thorough history of taxes over time

This book can get a little academic at times, but is a very thorough and interesting history of tax rates and their effects on the economy over the last 100+ years.

The narrative fails without the charts and graphs

The story would be compelling if one could see the data that it refers to in the narrative. The redundancy in the verbiage makes it evident that multiple authors were involved. It could have been great with better editing and downloadable charts.

proof of the broken tax code, and half the story

if you read this book , also read, "The Triumph of Injustice," for a more wholelistic view of taxes on the economy, with far less bias.

This book by Laffer basically proves that the tax code has neutered the power of the government to enforce high marginal tax rates on businesses and the wealthy. It gives the invaluable insight as to why high marginal tax rates lower tax revenues, and reveals the confounding variable behind the illusion of the great compression: TAX WRITE OFFS FOR BUSINESS and LEGAL TAX AVOIDANCE. High marginal tax rates don't inherently lower tax revenues. Rather, our tax code, largely a product of business lobbying, allows the wealthy to allude high tax rates legally. This will NEVER CHANGE, unless we scrap the tax code. If you have a business, its great advice for cutting your tax bill.

Do not read this book without a working knowledge of economics, US economic history, and CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS, or you will be misguided. This book assumes taxes are the problem and basically attempts to prove that premise, and as a result, does not tell the full story. it grossly omits the effects of major events on the economy because it assumes that taxes are the root of all booms and busts without context.

This book focuses on the growth of the economy, but makes little mention of the economic state of those in the economy, except with sckewed metrics like "standard of living metric", which has nothing to do with the purchasing power of the common American worker. this book looks at tax revenues, but almost never mentions the national debt or deficit, unless it supports their case at the time. This book doesnt really mention the governments inability to invest in its people for education, infrastructure, research and development, social services, or economic relief, without taking on massive debt. There are mentions of the unemployment rate, but how well did those jobs pay? I can't remember ANY mention of stagnant wages adjusted for inflation (except stagflation and taxflation in the 70s), or how wages no longer track productivity for the common worker. This book sheds light on the illusion of historical lower income inequality, but ignores income inequality as a problem otherwise, as well as income inequality's damaging effects on our democracy through lobbying in politics. It skews some concepts of Keynesian economics. How does an economic book address the crashes of 1929 and 2008 without ANY mention of the similar causes of those crashes; investment bubbles, banking practices, derivates, etc? High taxes have come and gone often, so there had to be other factors in 1929 and 2008. How do you ignore Vietnam, the removal of the Gold standard, and OPEC as major contributors to the 70's stagflation and horrid economy? It argues against widely accepted economic conclusions, with complicated explanations that lead to conclusions contrary to widely accepted economic truths and COMMON SENSE, suggesting that this book is highly biased, especially when you consider the parts of history this book omits. Economic concepts are pretty simple, and the best lies contain some truth.

This book is either half misguided, or written by intelligent people, who sound intelligent, with the intent to mislead and influence the readers opinions, who may not use critical thinking to challenge the authors' assertions to determine its truths from it's half truths.