print this pagePART I: REINVENTING UPWARD MOBILITY
CHAPTER 1: COMING UP IN THE GREAT AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS
CHAPTER 2: THE MIDDLE CLASS IN THE NEW ECONOMY
- Who Is the Middle Class?
- The Rising Cost of Rare Skills
- The Ordinary and the Extraordinary
- The Super Extraordinary
- The Capitalists
- The Iron Law of Wages
- The Middle-Class Squeeze
- Petitioning for Relief
- A Stark Choice
CHAPTER 3: WHAT HISTORY SHOULD HAVE TAUGHT US
- How the Great Recession Changed Us
- The View from Ancient Athens
- How Conservative Leadership Used to Look: Lycurgus and Bismarck
- Ending Class Warfare
- Investing in a Workforce Second to None
PART II: HISTORY AND BASICS OF TAXATION
CHAPTER 4: HOW DID WE GET HERE?
- A Brief History of Taxation
- Effects of Moving from Consumption Tax to Income Tax
- Complexity and the Cost of Government
- The Libertarian Bargain
- Why “No New Taxes” Is Not the Answer
CHAPTER 5: THE FEDERAL TAXES WE PAY
- Doing Our Taxes
- Paying for Government
- The Personal Income Tax
- The Payroll Tax: Paying for Social Security and Medicare
- The Corporate Income Tax
- Excise Taxes: Taxing Use, Sin, & Luxury
- The Estate and Gift Tax: Death & Taxes
CHAPTER 6: HOW THE TAX GAME IS PLAYED
- What is the Tax Game?
- What the Tax Game Should Produce for America
- Who Plays the Game?
- Getting in the Game and Staying in the Game
- Rules of the Game
- President Donald Trump and What It Means for Taxes
- Changing the Game
PART III: MYTH-BUSTING
CHAPTER 7: THE MYTH OF THE MAKERS AND THE TAKERS
- Who Are the Makers and the Takers?
- The Making Side of the Ledger
- The Taking Side of the Ledger
- Preserving Market Forces
CHAPTER 8: THE MYTH OF OVERTAXATION
- America’s Spending and Taxing
- The National Debt
- The Limits to Borrowing
- Under-Taxation and its Consequences
- Common Gripes
- The Endless and Pointless Questions of Fairness
CHAPTER 9: THE MYTH OF TAX RATES AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
- Tax Rates and Economic Growth: Myth and Fact
- The Laffer Curve
- Dynamic Scoring
- Tax Cuts: Theory and Reality
- Junking Ideology in Favor of Common Sense in Tax Policy
CHAPTER 10: THE MYTH OF JOB CREATION
- Job Creation and Public Investments
- Business Must Have an Enabling Environment
- Tax Revenue as an Instrument of National Power
- Taxation, Investment, and Consumption
- Small Business and Job Creation
- Tax Rates and Job Creation
PART IV: WE THE PEOPLE
CHAPTER 11: PAYING TO RENEW AMERICA
- The Enlightened Self-Interest of the Very Best-Off
- America’s Capitalists
- Reestablishing America’s Financial Security
- Two Models for Wealth and Income Distribution: 1979 or 2012
- America’s Choices
CHAPTER 12: THE AMERI-SHARE TAX PLAN
- A Tax to Keep America The Last Best Hope of the World
- The Task Ahead
- The Ameri-Share Tax: Replacing Many Taxes with One
- Getting Rid of Subsidies and Tax Preferences
- A Living Wage
- The Ameri-Share Work Credit
- The Ameri-Share Investment Credit
- Assuring America’s Financial Security
- Administering The Ameri-Share Tax
- The Potential Fatal Flaw
- Conclusion
- The Arrival of “Eventually”
- The Fall of the Sword of Damocles
- A New Financial Reality Brings a New Political Reality
- The President as the Middle Class’s Champion
- Conclusion