Milton Friedman Speaks - Season 1 Episode 13 Is Tax Reform Possible? (Lecture)

Why do Americans pay more in taxes than they really want to? Can they do anything about it? Americans must understand that their true tax burden is what the government spends—regardless of how that spending is financed — and that if government spending goes up faster than prices in general, the real tax burden increases. Simplifying the system is far from easy, but the real defect is not in the tax system, anyway, but in the budget structure. Our only hope for tax reduction is in establishing constitutional provisions that will set limits on government spending. Recorded at Americanism Education League, Pasadena, CA