The Rosetta Stone to the US Code: A New History of Taxation

A New History of Taxation

1. The Making of a Tax Historian

BiographiesLegal SystemTaxes and Spending

09/06/2004Mises Media
Charles Adams, the tax writer, tells young people to get a liberal education and go with the flow. He took tax law and he taught history. He saw that there was a tax story behind every event. Taxes, not slavery, caused the Civil War.Taxes began in Sumer. “Taxes are the fuel that make civilizations...
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A New History of Taxation

2. The Bible's World of Taxes

Taxes and SpendingWorld History

09/06/2004Mises Media
Adams begins this session with facts about taxation being the basis of the Civil War, not slavery. If the British had not taxed the colonies, the colonies would have remained with Britain and slavery would have been ended when Britain ended it. The thousand year history of the Romans covered...
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A New History of Taxation

3. The Kaleidoscopic Romans

Taxes and SpendingWorld History

09/06/2004Mises Media
Adams begins with a few tidbits: taxation problems caused the end of Egypt and the taxes that the Greeks put on the Jews were an excessive one-third. Sulla of Rome created special tax agents, essentially IRS agents, to collect taxes. Cicero felt that the era of chaos made a military dictatorship...
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A New History of Taxation

4. The Middle Ages

Taxes and SpendingWorld History

09/06/2004Mises Media
Lady Godiva’s naked ride on her horse was a protest over taxes. Ship money for war ships was collected in Britain even though there was then no war.
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A New History of Taxation

5. The Swiss: From William Tell to No Tell

Taxes and SpendingWorld History

09/06/2004Mises Media
Note:The Swiss are not mentioned in this lecture. King Solomon, king of Israel from 970 to 931 BC, lusted after women as he grew older. He had a thousand wives and concubines. Solomon spent tax moneys for luxurious palaces and his harem. His treasury was soon empty, so he found new ways to drain...
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A New History of Taxation

6. Tax Revolt in the Netherlands

Taxes and SpendingWorld History

09/06/2004Mises Media
In this lecture Adams talks about the Enlightenment which was the philosophy of the eighteenth century. It was the high water mark of man’s thinking on taxes. They were wise; we’re not. These thinkers used the past as a guide.
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A New History of Taxation

7. After the Magna Carta

Legal SystemTaxes and SpendingWorld History

09/06/2004Mises Media
Does liberty sow the seeds of its own destruction? Yes, by consenting to excessive taxes. Government will not want to give up the power. Taxes were to be only for common defense, not offensive wars.
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A New History of Taxation

8. The Civil War

Taxes and SpendingU.S. HistoryWar and Foreign Policy

09/06/2004Mises Media
A tariff set the stage for the American Civil War. The quarrel between the North and the South was a fiscal quarrel, not a war over slavery. The tariff of 1828 was called the tariff of abomination. Nullification was a strong argument to void unconstitutional federal laws.
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A New History of Taxation

9. American Taxation

Legal SystemPolitical Theory

09/06/2004Mises Media
The Laffer Curve from the 1920s reflects the truism that a 77 percent tax rate produces the same amount of revenue as a 7 percent tax rate. Once the tax rate exceeds twenty-five percent, less will be collected.
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A New History of Taxation

10. Learning from the Past: What History Teaches

Taxes and SpendingU.S. HistoryWorld History

09/06/2004Mises Media
Adams suggests nine reform items to tame the tax monster: 1) tear down the spy system, 2) establish a crime for tax extortion as well as a civil action for damages, 3) establish a civil action for damages for tortious tax administration including: malicious tax investigations, extortions, leaked...
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