Phillips, Kevin

• Boiling Point

  • This book describes economic and tax politics during the Reagan-Bush years. I would imagine that since this is the same author who wrote about the imminent conservative wave to sweep the country back in 1969 during the LBJ administration, he must have some credibility among conservatives. Then again, his thesis here is that Reagan screwed the middle class, so maybe not. Anyway, Phillips tries to put the importance of the middle class to the health of the nation into a historical perspective by comparing the situation in the United States to colonial Holland, Spain and England in past centuries, and his arguments here are mildly persuasive.

    What's really persuasive is the data. It's pretty easy to see here that the overall tax burden on the rich was decreased during the 1980's at the expense of the lower and middle classes. After all, it's no secret that it was called "trickle-down" economics. What's debatable is the impact of these tax breaks. Certainly the overall income of the middle class declined during this time (relative to the wealthy) as a result of the total increased tax burden, and Phillips spends a lot of time making this point in a lot of different ways. The book is worth reading just for his insights into tax policy, but I'll admit it is a little dry. I liked it and was glad to find it for two bucks on a bargain shelf. This is a great source of background material about the 80's.

    Oh, and PS, as I say in my Sour Grapes pages, if you don't like the political views I express in these reviews, just stuff a sock in it! :)

Return to the Welcome Page of Doug's Library.