- About the Book

YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE:
Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax
by Sheldon Richman
Published by The Future of Freedom Foundation

The IRS is the most feared government agency in America.

Why does it exist and why is it integral to the operation of the government as we have come to know it? "As we have come to know it" - there's the rub. The income tax wasn't integral to anything the Founders of this country had in mind and it wasn't integral to anything they designed.

Sheldon Richman shows where the income tax and the IRS camefrom, and recounts not only how they came to be but why. He traces the constitutional difficulties relating to direct and indirect taxes. He deals with the moral difficulties of justice in taxation. And he investigates just where the idea for "progressivity" came from: who would promote such an idea, and what's the ethical justification for forcing you to pay a larger portion of your income in taxes when you get a raise or find a better job?

All taxation is objectionable, Richman says, but special evils and abuses accompany the income tax. What makes Richman's analysis different from others is that he shows that those special evils are not accidental, something that can be eliminated just by putting the right people in charge or by offering a few reforms here and there. They are intrinsic to the purpose for which the IRS and the income tax exist.

And that's why he proposes that the whole thing just be repealed.

How much will that cost and what would it mean to Americans and their liberty? Richman argues that there are no real costs - only bene-fits - to returning to the American people the billions the income tax takes from them every year. Getting rid of the income tax is a critical step toward expanding and restoring our liberties.

An afterword discusses the latest batch of reforms: they turn out to be more window dressing. They couldn't have been otherwise, says Richman, and he tells you why.

Sheldon Richman says the income tax makes you poorer; reading his discussion of it will make you richer.

Copyright ©1999 by Sheldon Richman and The Future of Freedom Foundation. Please do not duplicate or distribute this file without permission from the publisher. Please send requests to mailto: Thank you.

- About the Book

MY SOUL SAID TO ME:
An Unlikely Journey
Behind the Walls of Justice
by Robert E. Roberts, D.D.S., Ph.D., M.S.W.
Published by Health Communications, Inc.

So there Rusty and I were, behind locked doors, in a circle with fifty male prisoners. As soon as our requested three minutes of silence were over, Billy, a prisoner who was sitting next to my colleague, Rusty, turned to him, got right in his face and demanded, "What the f- you doin' here - you come here to f- with our minds?" Billy was not much bigger than Rusty, but he was solid muscle. The expression on his face was serious and focused. "They payin' you to be here? How much they payin' you? Wisely, Rusty carefully and calmly answered his questions with a brief "Yes," and, "Not much."

Such was the tone at Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, Louisiana, on day-one of Bob Robert's first workshop. Here, as part of his doctoral dissertation, he would apply the community building model of his mentor Dr. Scott Peck to a group of fifty prisoners, nearly all African American, and chosen at random by a lottery system. Meeting weekly, and intended to last three years, the workshops progressed. Men who had lived together for years, barely exchanging words, began to converse meaningfully with each other. Visitations increased from loved ones and friends, and a considerable decrease in violence within the group of prisoners occurred as well. When tested, the average reading scores of the community improved an entire grade level every seven weeks.

In My Soul Said To Me: An Unlikely Journey Behind the Walls of Justice, Bob Roberts documents every leg of this unlikely journey straight through to the eventual sabotage and demise of the program he implemented in Jackson. Fortunately, although the author has us despairing for the Dixon prisoners left behind whom we grow to understand and care about, Roberts is inspired to further his work by starting what would become the country's only privately operated prisoner re-entry program funded by the Department of Justice and the most successful one of its kind.

What began as an experiment that benefited a few hundred prisoners in Louisiana grew into Project Return in New Orleans, a program affiliated with Tulane Medical Center's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Since its inception, Project Return has helped break the cycles of addiction, crime and violence of over 2,500 former offenders reducing their probability of returning to prison from 3 in 4 to 1 in 4.

Two significant elements of the work Roberts practiced in his original program and carries on at Project Return involve grief work and African studies. For the first time in their lives, participants enter a safe environment for unloading emotional burdens they have carried for years, burdens that have weighed them down with guilt, shame, and grief because there has been no place to lay them, no one to acknowledge their suffering, no vessel strong enough to contain their rage. From this process, participants cultivate an environment of "extraordinary respect" for each other rekindling in them the flames of dignity, courage, determination, and destiny.

Exploring the darkest terrain of violence and human suffering, and the brightest regions of redemption, human dignity and hope, My Soul Said to Me will change forever your view of criminal justice, your appreciation of deep relationships and freedom, and your ability to determine your own future. It is a story of deceit and honesty, cowardice and courage, prejudice and acceptance. Most importantly, it is the story of the power of friendship and the ability that lies within each of us to create beauty in the world through commitment, determination, and the understanding that all of our souls came here for a reason.

"...this worthwhile, important book offers a bright, optimistic window onto the often horrific conditions that still exist in prisons today."
--Publishers Weekly, February 2003

"I was privileged to participate in the community circle of Project Return once, and I grasped immediately the source for its success -- community. This story is a refreshing testimony but it's also a roadmap to community and healing. And, most importantly, it's a bright and gleaming sign of possibility that will inspire others to create ways to reach out and include the 'least of these' which our society tends to throw away."
-- Helen Prejean, author, Dead Man Walking

"This is a passionate, sobering story that paradoxically brings hope into dark places of the American psyche."
-- Robert Bly, author of Iron John

"This book tells of one man's courage [and] challenges the courage of us readers to face our passive complicity that perpetuates the system."
-- James Hillman, author, The Soul's Code

"My Soul Said to Me is a dramatic story of both personal and social transformation."
-- Robert Moore, author, The Archetype of Initiation

"It takes boldness, determination and an acute sense of service to the world in pain to do what Bob Roberts has done. His journey speaks to all souls who have heard the call to live at the edge courageously and sacrificially."
-- Malidoma Somé, author, Of Water and the Spirit

"Bob Roberts' story is both incredibly moving and inspiring. His healing model is both effective and replicable. It goes right to the heart of the matter. A must read for anyone interested in prison reform and human potential."
-- Richard Gere, actor and activist

"This book chronicles a unique journey which has been successful in its goal of giving guidance and hope to hundreds of ex-convicts, leading many to productive lives and reducing the rate of recidivism. It is a truly inspiring story."
-- David C. Treen, former Governor of Louisiana

- About the Book

RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be?
by Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
with Elizabeth Anne Stephenson
Published by Cliff Street Books
A Division of HarperCollins Publishers

- About the Book

THE SUCCESSFUL LANDLORD:
How to Make Money Without Making Yourself Nuts
By Ken Roth
Published by AMACOM

How to stay in control and "in the black" as a landlord.

Much more goes into the leasing of property than just placing an ad in the newspaper and collecting rent. The Successful Landlord presents readers with need-to-know information, from finding good tenants to managing the ongoing tenant-landlord relationship.

Combining a commonsense approach with must-have information, the book gives first-time and veteran landlords smart strategies for:

The Successful Landlord offers a beautiful balance between theory (the law) and practice (the deadbeat tenant). Even though the author is an attorney, he's more focused on plain spoken, practical, common sense advice than trying to write every imaginable problem into a lease agreement. The book is loaded with vivid case histories from dozens of rental situations that will help you expect the unexpected and prepare accordingly.

Packed with forms for leases, letters, and other legal documents, The Successful Landlord gives readers the knowledge and tools to become successful, high-income landlords.

Copyright ©2004 by Kenneth M. Roth. All rights reserved. Reprinted here with permission of the publisher, Amacom Books, http://www.amacombooks.org. Please feel free to duplicate or distribute this file, as long as the contents are not changed and this copyright notice is intact.