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.
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 inevitable, saying that, “And so in Rome only the walls of her houses remain standing… our Republic we have lost forever.”
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.
The Deficit Twins, are, at best, fraternal, not identical, writes Sean Corrigan. In the last six years, US defense spending has risen 60% and four-fifths of this increase has taken place just since the present Administration took office.
Stefan Karlsson considers the income effect and concludes that its very existence demonstrates the failure of the state to improve the social order.
Dale Steinreich explains the twin goals of the AMA-shaped medical industry: artificially elevated incomes and worship by patients.
There are many reasons for the decline of the family, lifestyle choice among them, writes Per Henrik Hansen.
Erich Mattei explains that reformist measures do not address the fundamental problem afflicting the nations waterways: river socialism.
Harry Valentine writes that South Africa's long term economic future appears bleak due to the policies that the nation's government has already enacted.
