Death duties are now only a minor source of revenue to the British Exchequer (about 1.5 per cent of Inland Revenue receipts) and they now have few committed advocates. Nevertheless they persist, mainly because of inertia. Dr Bracewell-Milnes analyses the traditional criticism of death duties and adds some novel arguments based on the concept of saving in perpetuity -- saving which is never drawn down, whether or not it was initially planned as perpetual. The perpetual saver is a public benefactor because he or she provides the rest of society with a permanent loan at rates chargeable for loans with maturity dates. Taxing perpetual saving will reduce its supply, thus resulting in losses to the rest of society. Inheritance tax does immense economic damage, according to Dr Bracewell-Milnes, and should be abolished. It is 'perverse and counterproductive for its own ostensible purposes, egalitarian or otherwise.

Euthanasia for Death Duties: Putting Inheritance Tax Out of Its Misery (Research Monograph, 54)

Business & Money

Bracewell-Milnes, Barry

Economics

Institute Of Economic Affairs

Economics was originally about Agriculture. Manufacturing was added in the eighteenth century, services in the nineteenth. To these three branches of economics, 'Wealth without Cost' adds the costless creation of wealth, the creation of economic value without the use of costly inputs. The costless inputs that create costless wealth are scarce but cannot be purchased; examples are loyalty, saving in perpetuity, giving, proprietary appropriation, stewardship, altruism, freedom. But they can be identified, nurtured and used to good purpose. Costless wealth creation is a neglected topic; possibly because economics is about scarcity and the assumption that whatever is scarce is costly and whatever is costless is not scarce. Wealth without Cost challenges this assumption and the thesis has important implications for policy makers and the increasing statism of the west. There is economic, political and moral value in people taking their own decisions up against the enormous cost of state control. This important book argues that costless wealth may overtake services in importance, as services have overtaken manufacturing.REVIEWS "This, the first volume of a two-volume work, is a study of the economics of costless goods, which are defined as goods that create value but do not require costly inputs (such as traffic engineering, which increases the efficiency of existing assets with negligible cost). Costless inputs are scarce, create value, cannot be purchased, and, the author argues, must be nurtured by free institutions relying on the voluntary principle and eschewing coercion. The volume, which touches upon a range of issues including Christianity and the internalization of virtue as costless goods, voluntary loyalty as a creator of value, the wealth destruction of taxation, the value of stewardship, the "perverse" contradictions of egalitarianism, and the dangers to wealth creation posed by the European Union, evolves into an argument against "big government" and support for economic "freedom." The second volume brings the discussion more explicitly into relation with religion and art. Previously unavailable in the US."Protoview (previously known as Book News)

Wealth without Cost. Volume 1: White Alchemy in Economics

University of Buckingham Press

Published to widespread acclaim in the United Kingdom, the first volume of this important work examined the nature and creation of wealth, arguing that the "costless wealth" of human ingenuity - loyalty, charity, altruism and freedom - is more fundamental to prosperity than state intervention. Volume Two extends the argument to religion and the arts. By contrast with what is widely believed, economics, religion and the arts are structurally similar orders for the creation of value. Value can be created by the primary activities of entrepreneurs, prophets and artists and through the secondary activities of stewards and critics; and the process extends to tertiary value creation by consumers. Costless wealth creation makes better use of what already exists. It can operate through the improvement of institutions or through the workings of the individual mind.REVIEWS "This is the second volume of two-volume work examining the concept of costless inputs to wealth creation. Costless inputs are scarce, create value, cannot be purchased, and, the author argues, must be nurtured by free institutions relying on the voluntary principle and eschewing coercion. Examples he gives are loyalty, saving in perpetuity, giving, proprietary appropriation, stewardship, altruism, and freedom. He opposes freedom to state control, equality, and political correctness, which he argues have undue economic costs. This second volume extends the argument beyond economics to religion (Christianity) and the arts, which are similar creators of costless wealth, he writes."Protoview (previously known as Book News)

Wealth without Cost. Volume 2: White Alchemy in Religion and the Arts

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bracewell-Milnes, Barry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bracewell-Milnes, Barry

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bracewell-Milnes, Barry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Euthanasia for Death Duties: Putting Inheritance Tax Out of Its Misery (Research Monograph, 54)

Wealth without Cost. Volume 1: White Alchemy in Economics

Wealth without Cost. Volume 2: White Alchemy in Religion and the Arts