Episode 39 - For Good and Evil: Taxes and Civilization

In celebration of April 15th, Ron and Ed will explore the history of taxation. All good tax systems tend to go bad, and throughout history tax laws have taken away liberty more often than foreign invaders. As Charles Adams explained in his book that will be discussed on the show, For Good and Evil, The prosperity as well as the decline of nations has always had a tax factor... We will explore the priceless legacy the Enlightenment thinkers passed on to posterity that comprise the components of a just tax system, as well as Adam Smith's four marks of a bad tax system, and what a good tax system would look like.