Publishers Weekly
02/22/2021
The leaders of the Patriotic Millionaires, an organization of Americans with assets of more than $5 million who advocate against wealth disparity, present an accessible guide to the inequities of the American tax system. Pearl (How to Think Like a Patriotic Millionaire), the former managing director of BlackRock, and political strategist Payne (The Practical Progressive!) explain economic concepts like “marginal utility” (the difference in effect that a sum of money can have based on a person’s level of need) and analyze loopholes that allow people to avoid paying taxes on long-term investments and inherited wealth. Elsewhere, Pearl and Payne explain how corporations funnel profits through foreign tax havens and reduce their tax burdens by paying executives in stock options. The authors include useful graphs to explain complex financial matters and lighten the mood with tax-related political cartoons. Their suggestions for reform include equalizing the capital gains tax rate and the income tax rate, creating dozens of new tax brackets with increasing rates at the top end of the income scale, and instituting a wealth tax on “the absolute richest Americans.” Unfortunately, the only advice for achieving these reforms is to vote out legislators who support unfair tax policies. Nevertheless, this is an illuminating insider’s view of how the wealthy exploit the U.S. tax code. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Tax the Rich!:“An illuminating insider’s view of how the wealthy exploit the U.S. tax code.”—Publishers Weekly“Passionate.”—Financial Times“A timely and important book.”—San Francisco Book Review“Tax the Rich! should be on the bookshelves of every single working person in America. In this book, Morris and Erica skillfully reveal in plain English just how rigged our economy and tax code really are. This approachable look at the worst excesses of a tax code designed for the rich and by the rich makes it clear: working people are getting screwed by the status quo. If we want to live in the kind of country where everyone, no matter what their background, has a chance at the American dream, the only way to get there is by taxing the rich.”—Abigail Disney“Tax the Rich! reveals the inner workings of a system designed to make rich people richer and everyone else poorer. It breaks down how the economy has been deliberately structured, in large part through the tax code, to funnel the vast majority of economic growth into the pockets of millionaires and billionaires, working people be damned. This book gives a rare insider’s view of how the system is rigged, and offers a blueprint on how to fix it, starting with an engaged and united electorate holding politicians accountable for taxing the rich.”—Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and author of Saving Capitalism“This is a must-read book for anyone interested in tax justice and how to make the economy fairer. The U.S. tax system, which used to be one of the most progressive in the world, now lavishes rewards on some of the wealthiest people in the country. But as Morris Pearl, Erica Payne, and the Patriotic Millionaires argue, it is not too late to change course.”—Gabriel Zucman, economist and co-author of The Triumph of Injustice“This is the best tax book I have ever read. It reaches a level of candor I have never seen before. ”—Ralph Nader, political activist, lawyer and author of Unstoppable“The Patriotic Millionaires know how the rich have rigged the tax system. They tell the story in an engaging and compelling prose for the benefit of all of us. A must read. ”—Emmanuel Saez, economist and co-author of The Triumph of Injustice“Wonderfully readable.”—Andrew Tobias, writer and former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee
Kirkus Reviews
2021-01-23
A book from the Patriotic Millionaires group demands that wealthy Americans contribute vastly more to the public treasury.
Pearl, Payne, and their fellow philanthropic millionaires have a dire warning for the ultrawealthy: “You cannot continue to sit by and enjoy your riches while the rest of the world falls further into poverty and chaos….Reread your history books. Dysfunctional societies don’t end well for rich people either.” Though being rich is a fine thing—“I would recommend it to anyone,” Pearl breezily notes—it carries certain responsibilities as well as considerable freedoms. An equitable tax code is a start. The current system was built for the rich and by the rich, and it is structured so that it actively militates against building a strong middle class, predicated on fictions such as the trickle-down theory of economics. Inequality is rampant, and with it, instability and strife grow. This is all by design, write the authors. Against it, they talk economics. By reason of the theory of marginal utility, which holds that a person who has lots of units of something—dollars, say—will value an added unit less than a person who has few of them, those who have more money than they know what to do with will scarcely register a tax hike. Doing away with carried-interest deductions, putting capital gains rates on par with the rates applied to earned income, and taxing inheritances will do their part, too. The authors note that the current tax mess can’t be laid only at the door of Republicans, and they charge that it’s up to the people to rise up not violently but politically by voting for those who will advance a more equitable system: “If the American people are paying attention…they can have the kind of tax code they want, regardless of who’s in charge.”
A well-reasoned argument that, given the arrival of a like-minded administration, may soon prove to have legs.
