0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Nifty--If It Were True, 2008-07-14
This would be an interesting read if there were any truth to it. It took me about 15 minutes to disprove the theories presented herein. It is amazing to me that 2 economics journalists could miss by this much unless they are deliberately trying to mislead readers.
The IRS compiles reports on income and tax payments for all Americans and makes them available to the public. A quick glance at one of the reports shows that earners in the top 10% income bracket pay over 55% of all taxes, which means the other 45% is distributed among the remaining 90% of taxpayers. The bottom 10% pays less than 5% of the overall tax burden.
One example the use heavily is a comparison of George and Barbara Bush's tax return from 1992 to some random middle class American. From this, they attempt to show that the random guy paid a higher percentage of his income in taxes than the Bushes did. What they fail to mention is that most of the Bush's income (almost $900,000) was from Barbara's book sales and that she donated almost all of (over $800,000) it to charity. Taking this into account, the Bushes paid a much higher tax rate than the random guy did.
I don't think this book is worth the paper on which it is written.
4 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Missing the Big Picture, 2007-01-21
I find the author's primary thesis of "rich individuals and corporations shirking their rightful burden of taxes" to be undermined by the simple fact that those very same rich shoulder an enormous share of the financial burden of taxation. The top 1% of wage earners pay over a third of all federal income taxes, and the top 10% pay almost two thirds. I'm a university professor earning about $40K a year, and it seems pretty obvious to me that the wealthy are supporting the lower earners in this country when it comes to their fair share of the federal budget. Does a wealthy person use the army or highways more than I do? Than why should they pay so much more? I understand the attempts of the wealthy (like anyone) to reduce their taxes, and since the wealthy are still shouldering so much of the burden of taxation, I have to assume that their attempts are not quite as successful as the author would have us believe. It seems to me that this book, while well written, is focused too much on the small "tax dodges" and not enough on the big picture, which is that the wealthy are already shouldering more than their fair share of the country's budget.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting, but suspect, 2004-04-07
I'm going to prelude this by saying I haven't completed reading this book yet, but want to express my opinion on what I have read so far. While the information contained is rather interesting and eye-opening, I have to take much of what is said with a grain of salt. The primary reason is that I have come accross several basic math errors in the author's conclusions (the difference between a 19.8% rate and 18.1% rate is NOT 9%). It's also rather dry reading (though I somewhat expected that, considering the topic) and repetitive (did the author really need to provide the exact quotes of 15 different people all saying (effectively) the same thing to make his point?).
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
More Like Who Does Not Pay Taxes, 2003-02-10
I had a concern coming into this book that is was going to be pages of dull tax code jargon that kill any reading joy I might find in a book that bashes politicians. Luckily the author�s wrote the book for the average Joe and left out the tax code. The basic premise of he book is that there is a special set of rules that the rich have had written into the tax code so that they do not pay the stated rates on the progressive tax system in the USA. This should not surprise most of us as it is the rich and corporations that spend the money with the politicians to get them elected, thus the back scratching has its fingers in the tax code. Now days it is hard to bring this charge up without all the �Class Warfare� bias charges being tossed at you and this book is probably no exception. To me the authors did not seam to really be that bias, just real mad. As an average Joe many parts of the book did make me a bit mad, just on the basic fairness point of view. They are good tidbits to have handy next time you are in a discussion with a person that pulls out the �rich already pay most of the taxes� lines. With that said I did feel that the authors might have been reaching on some of thier complaints about corporations. Like most things it is a matter of degrees and in some parts I thought they went one or two steps over the line. My biggest complaint of the book was the number of person quote examples they used. It was nice to see two or three comments from some Senators on this or that tax bill, but the authors always seemed to use 10 � 15. It was too much, we all know the politicians all read from the same talking points memos so to spell it out in a book using examples was overkill. Overall the book was interesting but not earth shattering.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Left winged or right winged this book is well researched, 2002-01-23
America, Who Stole the Dream, was a WONDERFUL READ. I find myself leaning more to the right, from a political perspective, but the authors arguments are EXCELLENT at times and they definitely bring up some great points.
This book is the most well argued book I have read about the current demise of the middle class in the U.S. After reading it I would definitely have to say that I have more concern about political decisions being made in Washington as the authors illustrate that consistently the politicians don't do the right thing for the country.
The authors bring up several concerns
1. Middle class demise via outsourcing of manufacturing to lower cost areas
2. Growing disparity of wealth (the rich own more in % terms)
3. The outsourcing of the `HIGH TECH JOBS' that are to be the savior of the country.
4. Commentary about various social programs set up and how ineffective they are.
In conclusion I would say this book was extremely well researched and I therefore give KUDOS to the authors. While I don't agree with everything they wrote I believe they have put forth an excellent piece of work.
My main contention with the book is that it focuses on the demise of manufacturing and low-end jobs, along with some high tech. The U.S. is expensive from a labor perspective. As we have outsourced much of our manufacturing we have been able to purchase products at cheaper prices in the U.S.. Imagine what some products would cost if we were paying for labor that was, in some cases, 10x higher than current wages in developing countries? NOWHERE in the book do the authors mention the BENEFIT to our standard of living because we can buy more with our dollars than we would be able to do so otherwise. In general, this book is WAY to the left so reader beware.
My background is a B.S. in Acct., an MBA in finance and current interests in economic and social policy development so I found this to be quite an interesting read.