Ray Madoff on 'How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy'

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News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“After the US Constitution, the tax code is the single most important document affecting Americans’ lives. But because it is a deeply opaque, seven-thousand-page document, few Americans have any idea what the code says.” So writes legal scholar Ray D. Madoff, who argues the tax code is one of the main drivers of our nation’s historic wealth inequality — allowing the ultra-wealthy to avoid taxation altogether while relying much more on workers’ payroll taxes than many realize. We unpack how the tax code works and what real reform would look like. Madoff’s book is “The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy.” Guests: Ray D. Madoff, professor, Boston College Law School; author, "The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Forum. I'm Guy Marzorati in for Mina Kim.
0:07.7	Next week, Vermont Senator and Progressive icon Bernie Sanders is coming to California
0:12.6	to kick off the campaign for a wealth tax on the state's billionaires.
0:17.3	The tax is still thousands of signatures away from even making it onto the ballot, but few
0:23.1	California proposals have ever generated such controversy at such an early stage.
0:28.6	And other proposals to soak the rich and big corporations are being considered across
0:33.1	California and the country.
0:35.3	What's behind it all?
0:36.4	Well, perhaps a feeling that the ultra-rich have long avoided paying their fair share of taxes.
0:42.0	It's what Boston College Law School professor Ray Madoff describes in her new book, The Second Estate, how the tax code made an American aristocracy.
0:50.7	And Ray Madoff is here with us on Forum for the Hour. So great to have you.
0:55.3	Wonderful to be here, Guy. Thanks so much for having me.
0:58.5	Well, we'll get into your thoughts on this specific idea of a wealth tax that's really
1:03.5	causing a lot of a firestorm here in California. But I think big picture, why do you think
1:09.5	we are seeing proposals like this pop up really around the country to start off 2026?
1:16.5	I think it's for two reasons.
1:18.6	One is because, as every American can see, the amount of wealth owned by our wealthiest Americans is astronomical.
1:25.6	It is absolutely huge. and some numbers by comparison
1:30.8	might be useful. The country, if you think about it, the country took in in 2024 in taxes from
1:38.2	all sources, $5 trillion, and we spent $7 trillion. We had a $ a two trillion deficit and yet at that same time
1:46.4	the amount of wealth owned by the wealthiest one percent of americans was 50 trillion dollars
1:52.7	we had a two trillion dollar deficit at the time that the wealthiest one percent owned 50
	...

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