How the Tax Code Manipulates Us
10th April 2014
John Stossel turns over a rock.
The tax code is now complex enough that most Americans now hire Bob, or his equivalent. Instead of inventing things, doing charity work or just having fun, we waste weeks (and billions of dollars) on tax preparation. And we change our lives to suit the wishes of politicians.
“What the tax code is doing is trying to choose our values for us,” complains Yaron Brook from the Ayn Rand Institute.
I think I choose my own values, but it’s true that politicians use taxes to manipulate us. Million-dollar mortgage deductions steer us to buy bigger houses, and solar tax credits persuaded me to put solar panels on my roof.