The IRS Conspiracy

As one who has long been hysterical about the evils and inequities of taxation, I have learned in measures how tiresome hysteria can be. Approaching Hank Hohenstein's book, The IRS Conspiracy, I was braced for a thumping lesson in what I already knew; for what in fact anyone with a nodding acquaintance with libertarian thought knows: that taxation is theft. And so on. I expected little more than a cloth-bound tract. What I found was altogether more than I expected. The IRS Conspiracy is an urbane and well written book—preoccupied, to be sure, with the details of the so-called "San Diego Ten" adventure, but not an egocentric memoir. Author Hohenstein has thought well about his subject. He makes many observations about the dilemma of the taxpayer in America which are worth reading—and which would impress the normally inattentive taxpaying boobs who are this book's hoped-for audience.

I will not bore you with details of the San Diego showdown. If you do not know already, then you will be amazed. It is rather like something out of Alice in Wonderland, as are many of the other examples of IRS abuse which Hohenstein alludes to throughout The IRS Conspiracy. An inquiry at the IRS indicates that this good bureaucracy is already bracing itself with answers for the benefit of any citizen who would be so infatuted as to ask for the government's version of why it trampled on taxpayer rights.

Hohenstein's book is really more than a rehash of the Reader's Digest articles of several years ago exposing IRS abuses. His analysis of the role of taxation in screwing up society allows him a context for some trenchant and wide-ranging political commentary. It is pretty sly really, the way he smuggles in the libertarian doctrine. His commentary on the role of the Los Angeles Rapid Transit District's planning to destroy mass transit in Los Angeles is particularly interesting. It proposes what I might suppose is the answer to the Friedmanite argument for government from the "neighborhood effect." It is the decidedly "unneighborly effect" of government actions which interests Hohenstein, and which he reveals in a skillfully argued context.

The whole book is so successfully done that it would make a marvelous introduction to libertarian theory for many who are not ready to be interested. If you know someone who could use some indoctrination, but would not go along willingly, send him this book. It is rather like the literary equivalent of the vegetable which children eat because they do not know it is good for them. But having done a marvelous job of making it taste good, Hohenstein makes the mistake of calling it "spinach." "The IRS Conspiracy" as a name for a subtly written book is really a dead giveaway that something disquieting awaits the reader. That being the case, perhaps your best bet for getting your friends to read The IRS Conspiracy is to buy a copy and chop off the cover and title page. Tell the person you are giving it to that the book is "How To Get Rich By Understanding Taxation and Government." That will grab his attention. The author's sufficient talents should be enough to earn you your friend's forgiveness when he discovers that you were trying to get him to think.

Reviewed by James Dale Davidson / Political Philosophy (307 Pages) / BFL Price $7.95