Milton Friedman on PBS

[Lloyd Danforth]

I don't know how many stations are carrying it, but, one of my local PBS stations is running a show about Milton Friedman tonight:

The Power of Choice
The Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman

[Rosie the Riveter]

I don't know how many stations are carrying it, but, one of my local PBS stations is running a show about Milton Friedman tonight:

The Power of Choice
The Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman

10:00 pm WGBH -- PBS Boston

Thanks for the heads up Lloyd -- I'm looking forward to watching.

[Fluff and Stuff]

Thanks, I set my system to record the one on the 30th.

[d_goddard]

The must-see PBS series "Free to Choose" is up on Google Video:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22free+to+choose%22+friedman

[Rosie the Riveter]

or here all 10 Free to Choose volumes streaming
http://www.ideachannel.tv/

[David]

Just saw the pbs show, I thought it was pretty good. 

[HippyChimp]

tivo'd it, finally watched it last night.  something stood out to me, mention was made of a "witholding tax" that started in '43.  looked into it a bit and found this blurb...

In 1943, the government began withholding taxes on the advice of Milton Friedman.[20] After the war ended, this method of stealth taxation (and tax increases) continued.

wtg, Milt...     so, prior to 1943, how'd the taxman collect?

[error]

wtg, Milt...     so, prior to 1943, how'd the taxman collect?

"Voluntary compliance."

[Brock]

Not to take anything away from the man, but the first withholding tax was actually enacted at the start of the Civil War.

In later years, Friedman lamented the withholding precisely because of its "out of sight, out of mind" nature.

[HippyChimp]

I found this article...  http://www.mises.org/story/1797

The Origin of Tax Withholding

So where did the withholding tax come from? It was not part of the original income tax that resulted from the sixteenth amendment in 1913. Very few people paid any taxes back then anyway. The income tax did not directly affect the average American until World War II.

On the eve of the war, few Americans paid income taxes. Those that owed taxes paid them in one lump sum on March 15 (later changed to April 15). To pay for the war, the Revenue Act of 1942 lowered exemptions and raised income tax rates. But it also did something even more insidious?it instituted a 5 percent "Victory Tax" on all wages above an exemption of $624. The tax was to be collected by the employer and deducted from the employee's paycheck?just like the Social Security tax that began in 1935.

The Current Tax Payment Act of 1943 then revolutionized the income tax by making withholding taxes universal. The withholding tax was part of the new tax plan offered by Beardsley Ruml (1894?1960), the chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and treasurer of R.H. Macy and Co. By 1945, about three-fourths of Americans were paying federal income taxes. And although the withholding tax was sold as a wartime emergency, like most expansions of government instituted during wartime, it has been a way of life for most Americans ever since.

gonna have to look into that Current Tax Payment Act of 1943...

this looks like it's worth a read too:  http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj14n3-1.html

[error]

I might do something on this over the weekend, if I get the time.

[Brock]

I couldn't find anything from DiLorenzo (I don't have Real Lincoln, yet) on Mises.org, but I did find this:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005921.html

In 1862, in order to support the Civil War effort, Congress enacted the nation's first income tax law. It was a forerunner of our modern income tax in that it was based on the principles of graduated, or progressive, taxation and of withholding income at the source. During the Civil War, a person earning from $600 to $10,000 per year paid tax at the rate of 3%. Those with incomes of more than $10,000 paid taxes at a higher rate. Additional sales and excise taxes were added, and an ?inheritance? tax also made its debut.

[Lloyd Danforth]

When all of those women came into the workforce during the war........... well....we all know the little ladies can't do math  and won't be capable of putting a little away or computing their taxes at the end of the year, so, witholding came about so they wouldn't have to worry their cute litle heads over it.

[guy]

It was an excellent piece.  I found it ironic, however, that the only work Friedman could find after college was due to government-funded New Deal programs.

[Lloyd Danforth]

He wasn't an anti-government guy