What if the United States were really and truly a low-tax country whereby legislators, bound and dedicated to the Founders’ deep skepticism about government, made it their legislative aim to severely limit the flow of dollars to the U.S. Treasury? The question is an idealistic one, and for obvious reasons: politicians love that people stand up when they walk into a room (Tom Wolfe, A Man In Full), plus those same politicians want a rich retirement that will only be rich insofar as the federal government continues to grow.
Idealistic notion or not, I found myself thinking about it a lot while reading Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid’s excellent new book, The Case for American Power. While I disagree philosophically with Hamid about the use of American power, he writes and articulates ideas so well. And he crucially makes you think. Which means there’s a lot of learning from the book, spectacular references within it, and numerous insights that will be used for a long time in my own writing that mostly centers on economics.
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