Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax

by Sheldon Richman

Argues that the income tax should be abolished because it is an invasion of privacy that gives the government more money and power than the authors of the Constitution intended, and cannot be effectively reformed.

Genres: Politics, Economics, History

112 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1999

About the author

Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute, senior fellow and chair of the trustees of the Center for a Stateless Society, and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies, former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education, and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest book is Coming to Palestine.

Reviews

[Dan Doherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent Sheldon Richman book providing an information-packed, fluff-free short introduction to an important issue for libertarians (and non-libertarians) to understand. Before you read any book about taxation and taxes, read this first.

[Mel Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant libertarian book! Richman shows that income tax is predicated on the assumption that all one's income belongs to the government, and that the government allowing any personal spending at all is a concession on the part of the government. He argues that the only real solution is not a new tax code, nor a new tax, but an elimination of the income tax altogether and a return to the constitutional bounds of the federal government. This would go a long way in cleaning up government corruption, since the lobbyists' game of political favors and redistributionism would be deprived of its cash cow. It would also raise the prosperity of all levels of society as the disincentive to profit was removed.
I could say so much more. But it is a little book. I will quit here with "highly recommended."
I am looking forward to reading more of Richman's books.

[Craig Bolton]

Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax by Sheldon Richman (1999)