The theme is simple: The greedy hand of government “thrusting itself into every corner crevice of industry” is never satisfied with its take. (The metaphor of the “greedy hand” comes from Thomas Paine.) The payroll tax alone, paid by every McDonald’s french-fry flicker or Wal-Mart checkout clerk, is higher than the original 7 percent income-tax rate applied only to the super-rich robber barons back in the early years of the century, when this evil extraction was invented.
Shlaes takes us on a magical mystery tour through the modern labyrinth of tax levies: federal income taxes, business taxes, marriage taxes, retirement taxes, death taxes, state use taxes, state sales taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, liquor taxes, tobacco taxes, local and state property taxes, baby-sitter taxes. By the end you just want to renounce your United States citizenship, move to Monte Carlo, and live the life of a tax refugee.
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