How Capitalism Will Save Us (75 page)

4.
Tax Foundation, 2009 Survey of U.S. Attitudes on Taxes, Government Spending, and Wealth Distribution, Special Report no. 166.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/sr166.pdf
.

5.
Yaron Brook, “Life and Taxes,”
Forbes.com
, April 17, 2008.
http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/16/yaron-taxes-campaign-oped-cx_ybr_0417yaron.html
.

6.
Tom Bawden, “Buffett Blasts System That Lets Him Pay Less Tax than Secretary,”
The Times
(London), June 28, 2007.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article1996735.ece
.

7.
Stephen Moore, “How to Soak the Rich (the George Bush Way),”
Wall Street Journal
, p. A14.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114670305012743294.html
.

8.
“Excerpts from the Debate,”
New York Times
, October 16, 2008.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D03E0D81631F935A25753C1A96E9C8B63
.

9.
Scott A. Hodge, “U.S. States Lead the World in High Corporate Taxes,” March 18, 2008, Fiscal Fact No. 119.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/22917.html
.

10.
David Cay Johnston, “Enron’s Collapse: The Havens; Enron Avoided Income Taxes in 4 of 5 Years,”
New York Times
, Thursday, January 17, 2002.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/17/business/enron-s-collapse-the-havens-enron-avoided-income-taxes-in-4-of-5-years.html
.

11.
Alan Reynolds, “Obama’s ‘$4 Billion for Exxon’ Myth: Why Haven’t the ‘Fact-checkers’ Done a Better Job?”
Wall Street Journal
, November 1, 2008, p. A11.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122549399683189495.html
.

12.
Tax Foundation, “American Families Bear Large Burden from Corporate Income Tax:
Growing Consensus Says Corporate Taxes Are Most in Need of Reform,” August 26, 2008.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/23547.html
.

13.
Scott A. Hodge and Gerald Prante, “Personalizing the Corporate Income Tax,” Tax Foundation, Fiscal Fact No. 106, October 25, 2007.
http://taxfoundation.org/research/show/22694.html
.

14.
N. Gregory Mankiw, “The Problem with the Corporate Tax,”
New York Times
(Business), June 1, 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/business/01view.html
.

15.
Steve Forbes,
Flat Tax Revolution
(Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2005), p. 7.

16.
Ibid. p. 71.

17.
Brook, “Life and Taxes.”

18.
Chamberlain, Prante, and Fleenor, “Death and Taxes.”

19.
Ibid, p.3.

20.
Victor Mavar (former vice president of Mavar Shrimp & Oyster Co.), Statement for the Record, U.S. Senate Finance Committee, “Federal Estate Tax: Uncertainty in Planning Under the Current Law,” November 14, 2007.
http://www.nodeathtax.org/resources/testimonies/mavar
.

21.
Henry J. Aaron and Alicia H. Munnell, “Reassessing the Role for Wealth Transfer Taxes,”
National Tax Journal
45, no. 2 (June 1992), p. 139. Study cited in “The Economics of the Estate Tax,” a Joint Economic Committee Study, December 1998.
http://www.house.gov/jec/fiscal/tx-grwth/estattax/estattax.htm#endnot132
.

22.
Herman Cain, written testimony for U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing, “Federal Estate Tax: Uncertainty in Planning Under the Current Law,” November 14, 2007.
http://www.nodeathtax.org/resources/testimonies/cain
.

23.
David Cay Johnston, “A Texas Bid to Shift School Finances to ‘Sin Taxes’ ”
New York Times
, April 21, 2004.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/21/national/21TEXA.html
.

24.
Elizabeth Karasmeighan, “State Tax Trends over Twenty-Five Years: Tax Increases Down, Revenue Sources Shifting,” Americans for Tax Reform, August 14, 2006.
www.atr.org/pdf/2006/august/081406ot-statetrendspaper.pdf
.

25.
Rev. Robert A. Sirico, “The Sin Tax Craze: Who’s Next?”
Acton Commentary
, April 28, 2004.
http://www.acton.org/commentary/commentary_196.php
.

26.
Ibid.

27.
“Cigarette Tax Burnout,”
Wall Street Journal
, Review & Outlook, August 11, 2008.
http://online.wsj.com//files/11/79/47/f117947/public/article_print/SB121841215866128319.html
.

28.
National Center for Policy Analysis Task Force on Taxing the Poor, “Taxing The Poor,” no. 300, June 22, 2007.
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st300?pg=2
.

29.
Sirico, “The Sin Tax Craze.”

30.
Stephen Moore, “Capital Gains Taxes,”
The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics
, Library of Economics and Liberty.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/CapitalGainsTaxes.html
.

31.
Ibid. Alan Blinder, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board, noted in 1980 that, up until that time, “most capital gains were not gains of real purchasing power at all, but simply represented the maintenance of principal in an inflationary world.” Alan S. Blinder, “The Level and Distribution of Economic Well-Being,” in Martin Feldstein, ed.,
The American Economy in Transition
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 48.

32.
Donald Luskin, “The 2003 Tax Cut on Capital Gains Entirely Paid for Itself (I’m Not Just Saying It—CBO Is.)”
National Review Online
, January 27, 2006.
http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_luskin/luskin200601270946.asp
.

33.
Stephen Moore, “The Bush Capital Gains Tax Cut after Four Years: More Growth, More Investment, More Revenues,” National Center for Policy Analysis,
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st307
.

34.
Brian M. Riedl, “The Myth of Spending Cuts for the Poor, Tax Cuts for the Rich,”
Heritage Foundation, February 14, 2006.
http://www.heritage.org/research/budget/bg1912.cfm
.

35.
John Tamny, “A Dearth of Taxes?”
RealClearPolitics.com
, October 27, 2007.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/10/a_dearth_of_taxes.html
.

36.
“Nancy Pelosi on Thursday, January 8th, 2009, During a News Conference.”
St. Petersburg Times
,
PolitiFact.com
.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/jan/16/nancy-pelosi/tax-cuts-rich-deficit/
.

37.
Brian M. Riedl, “CBO Budget Baseline Shows Historic Surge in Spending and Debt,” Heritage Foundation, WebMemo no. 2193, January 7, 2009.
http://www.heritage.org/research/budget/wm2193.cfm
.

38.
Ibid.

39.
Daniel J. Mitchell, Ph.D. “Ten Deceptive Myths About Social Security, the Budget, and the Economy,” Heritage Foundation, Backgrounder no. 1467, August 23, 2001.
http://www.heritage.org/research/socialsecurity/bg1467.cfm
.

40.
Brian M. Riedl, “Top 10 Examples of Government Waste,” Heritage Foundation, Backgrounder no. 1840, April 4, 2005.
http://www.heritage.org/research/budget/bg1840.cfm
.

41.
Riedl, “CBO Budget Baseline Shows Historic Surge in Spending and Debt.”

1.
Friedrich Hayek,
The Road to Serfdom
(New York: Routledge, 2001).

2.
Milton Friedman,
Free to Choose
(New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990), p. 29.

3.
William Anderson, “A Primer on Regulation,” Mises Institute, 2004.

4.
Friedman,
Free to Choose
, p. 188. Regulation ended up crippling the railroad industry, preventing needed mergers and other productivity-enhancing measures. By the 1970s, the industry was in as bad a shape as the Detroit automakers are today. The industry faced bankruptcy. The government had taken over the bankrupt Penn Central. But instead of more bailouts and takeovers, Washington did something right. At the behest of President Jimmy Carter, Congress passed a sweeping deregulation bill that ended up abolishing the Interstate Commerce Commission and gave railroads the freedom to set prices and do mergers. Almost overnight the industry rebounded and became profitable and vibrant.

5.
Indonesia, “2009 Index of Economic Freedom,” Heritage Foundation.
http://www.heritage.org/index/country/Indonesia
.

6.
Alan Reynolds, “The Sarbanes-Oxley Tax,”
Investor’s Business Daily
, March 14, 2005.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4240
.

7.
Mallory Factor, “Two Cheers for Nancy Pelosi,”
Wall Street Journal
, March 19, 2006.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008110
.

8.
Reynolds, “The Sarbanes-Oxley Tax.”

9.
Ibid.

10.
Ibid.

11.
T. J. Rogers, “FASB: Making Financial Statements Mysterious,” Cato Institute Briefing Papers, August 19, 2008.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/bp/bp105.pdf
.

12.
Ibid.

13.
John Fund, “Escape from Wall Street,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 4, 2006.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110009339
.

14.
Seth Stein and Joseph Tomasello, “Safety Costs Too Much,”
New York Times
, January 10, 2004.
http://www.aei-brookings.org/policy/page.php?id=171&printversion=1
.

15.
Ibid.

16.
Ibid.

17.
Ibid.

18.
Walter Olson, “Scrap the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act,”
Forbes.com
, January 16, 2009.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=4303
.

19.
Ibid.

20.
Ibid.

21.
Ike Brannon, “What Is a Life Worth?”
Cato.org
, winter 2004–2005.
http://www.heartland.org/custom/semod_policybot/pdf/16936.pdf
.

22.
Bjørn Lomborg,
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007).

23.
Brannon, “What Is a Life Worth?”

24.
James Kanter and Jad Mouawad, “Money and Lobbyists Hurt European Efforts to Curb Gases,”
New York Times
, December 11, 2008.
http://www.e3network.org/resources/Money%20and%
20Lobbyists%20Hurt%20EU%20ETS%20(NYT).pdf
.

25.
Martin Feldstein, “Cap-and-Trade: All Cost, No Benefit,”
Washington Post
, June 1, 2009.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053102077.html
.

26.
D. T. Armentano, “A Politically Incorrect Guide to Antitrust Policy,”
Mises Daily
, September 15, 2007.
http://mises.org/story/2694
.

27.
Quoted in Amanda Carpenter, “God Says Raise the Minimum Wage, According to Ted Kennedy,”
Human Events
, November 8, 2005.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=10140
.

28.
Thomas Sowell, “The Imitators: Part I,”
Capitalism Magazine
, June 23, 2008.
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=5214
.

29.
Ibid.

30.
Ibid.

31.
Ali Abdiweli, “Unvarnished Views of a ‘Radical’ Economist: Walter E. Williams on More Innovation, Less Regulation, and the Entrepreneur as an American Hero,”
Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship
, July 2005.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5383/is_200507/ai_n21364336/pg_6/
.

32.
Quoted in Roger Koopman, “The Minimum Wage: Good Intentions, Bad Results,”
The Freeman
, March 1988.
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-minimum-wage-good-intentions-bad-results/
.

33.
James Sherk, “Minimum Wage Workers’ Incomes Rise When the Minimum Wage Does Not,” Heritage Foundation, July 28, 2006.
http://www.heritage.org/research/economy/wm1181.cfm
.

34.
James Sherk and Rea Hederman, “Who Earns the Minimum Wage? Suburban Teenagers, Not Single Parents,” Heritage Foundation, January 23, 2007.
http://www.heritage.org/research/economy/wm1320.cfm
.

35.
Rea Hederman and James Sherk, “Who Earns the Minimum Wage—Single Parents or Suburban Teenagers?” Heritage Foundation, August 3, 2006.
http://www.heritage.org/research/economy/wm1186.cfm
.

36.
Richard V. Burkhauser and Joseph J. Sabia, “Raising the Minimum Wage: Another Empty Promise to the Working Poor,” Employment Policies Institute, August 2005.
http://www.heartland.org/custom/semod_policybot/pdf/19638.pdf
.

37.
Ali Abdiweli, “Unvarnished Views of a ‘Radical’ Economist: Walter E. Williams on More Innovation, Less Regulation, and the Entrepreneur as an American Hero,”
Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship
, July 2005.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5383/is_200507/ai_n21364336/pg_6/
.

38.
Matthew Yglesias, “Airline Deregulation,”
Think Progress
, September 14, 2008.
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/09/airline_deregulation.php
.

39.
“Problem Solvers Get Involved When City Refuses Lemonade Stand,”
Local10.com
, January 10, 2005.
http://www.justnews.com/news/4053892/detail.html
.

40.
Jack McHugh, “Proposed Legislation a License to Kill Competitors for Big Auto Dealers,” Mackinac Center for Public Policy, January 2002.
https://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=3925
.

41.
Adam Summers, “Occupational Licensing Laws Protect Special Interests, Not the Public,” Reason Foundation, April 1, 2008.
http://reason.org/news/printer/occupational-licensing-laws-pr
.

42.
Cited in Morris M. Kleiner, “Occupational Licensing and the Internet: Issues for Policy Makers,” University of Minnesota and the National Bureau of Economic Research, October 1, 2002.
http://www.ftc.gov/opp/ecommerce/anticompetitive/panel/kleiner.pdf
.