The Income Tax: Root of All Evil

The Income Tax: Root of All Evil is a rare and important book. Rare because other than this special offering to Books for Libertarians, it is out-of-print. Important because it contains many insights into the relationship between government revenue and centralized power. Chodorov saw clearly that government spending is not related to any objective criteria in the world at large—rather that it rises and falls with income. This is an important point, dear to my heart, which is either unrealized or unappreciated among many libertarians who devote considerable time and attention to seeking a less elephantine government.

Among Chodorov's wise insights is this: "the poor, simply because there are more of them, have more ability to pay than the rich." His feeling for the true operation of our august legislative body, the Congress, is also a gem of political realism. Placing great stock in the ignorance of elected officials, Chodorov cites example after example to demonstrate why we have so many bad laws. Behind all the petty influences and pressures he sees the obvious cause of high spending and waste—the availability of the money. It is dished out right and left with great percipience by Senators and Congressmen, one of whom, in an example cited by Chodorov, was in close contact with his administrative assistant for a full year before realizing he was a dedicated communist.

Beyond the considerable information which can be gathered about the history of the income tax and its pernicious effect upon America, Chodorov's book contains much which should interest a student of the libertarian movement. He was one of a splendid but now obscure breed of 1930's individualist literati such as Rose Wilder Lane, Albert Jay Nock and Garet Garrett. Although perhaps not the best of these, Chodorov is very readable and funny. A better writer than logician, he is worth following, not because his arguments are drawn with full rigor but because they lead from one vivid insight to another.

Students of Austrian economic theory will notice that Chodorov is weak in understanding the imputation of taxation. He believes, for example, in the "common sense" idea that sales taxes are paid by consumers alone, whereas much of the cost of sales and other indirect taxation is imputed to capital. Consumers suffer higher prices because of restricted production, not through any ability of business to automatically "pass on" tax costs by price hikes.

Similarly, although Chodorov was well aware that the state exists though a monopoly of violence, this fact does not figure in his analysis. His position is that of an avid "states' righter"—opposed to centralized power and seeking to restrain it through elevation of the Constitution and increased autonomy for local governments. Chodorov wrote this book before the Supreme Court handed down Brown vs. the Board of Education and hence can be forgiven for thinking that states' rights held the key to repeal of the 16th Amendment. Today, the states don't even control the school lunch programs, let alone taxation. Even the Governor of Mississippi has given up talking about states' rights. Setting aside such minor embarrassments, a reader of intelligence will nevertheless appreciate most of Chodorov's comments.

Is "the income tax the root of all evil"? Probably not. But for those grown weary of taxes, Chodorov can be read and enjoyed without being taken seriously as a philosopher. In fact, there is something rather charming about the mild excess inherent in his thesis. His errors and exaggeration should no more trouble the libertarian then did the outlandish syllogisms of Reverend Billy Sunday trouble the prohibitionist. Reverend Sunday laid all the world's ills to demon rum. For a prohibitionist, that was true poetry. Chodorov places the blame on income taxes. That may not be strictly valid as a philosophic proposition, but as I read Chodorov smothering the tax collectors in hellfire and damnation, I knew that his was the type of salvation I could go for.

Reviewed by JAMES DALE DAVIDSON / Political Philosophy (133 pages) / BFL Price $4.50