Tax Reform
(see also Anti-Tax Movement)
Basics
Taxes are not only inevitable; they are necessary & even desirable, because they make possible the provision by government of the services a properly functioning civil society requires. The object of tax reform, therefore, is not to eliminate taxes but to levy them fairly. The progressive income tax, now largely abandoned in the US, was in principle a fair tax; regressive sales taxes, by & large, shift the tax burden onto those least able to pay.
On the Web: Articles
The Income Tax's Progressive Roots. Jonathan Rowe, EMagazine (3-4/99).
Sharing the Wealth: If We Shift the Tax Burden from Work to Waste, Everyone Benefits. Brian Dunkiel, M. Jeff Hamond & Jim Motavalli, EMagazine (3-4/99).
Tobin Tax (description).
On the Web: Specialized Sites
Citizens for Tax Justice. Advocates return to rational taxation policies.
In the Library: Articles
Wilson, Glynn. "Alabama vote roils alliances & stirs moral quandaries," Christian Science Monitor (9/8/03):3.
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Buenker, John D. The Income Tax & the Progressive Era (NY: Garland, 1985).
Hamill, Susan Pace. An Argument for Tax Reform Based on Judeo-Christian Ethics (Birmingham AL: Cliff Road, 2002). Basis for conservative Republican governor's effort to raise taxes in face of Alabama's fiscal crisis.
Ferleger, Lou & Jay R. Mandle. No Pain, No Gain: Taxes, Productivity, & Economic Growth (NY: 20th Century Fund, 1992).
Musgrave, Richard Abel. Strengthening the Progressive Income Tax: The Responsible Answer to America's Budget Problem (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 1989).
Zepezauer, Mark. Take the Rich Off Welfare [1996] (Boston: South End, 2004).