The Second Estate: Where Billionaires Don’t Pay. You Do. (with Ray D. Madoff)
Pitchfork Economics with Nick HanauerShow Notes
Would it be a surprise if we told you the rich don’t actually live in the same tax system as everyone else?
Tomorrow is Tax Day, when millions of Americans will be filing their taxes or applying for extensions, so Nick and Goldy sit down with Ray D. Madoff, Professor of Tax Law at Boston College, and author of The Second Estate, to pull back the curtain on how wealth really moves—and why so much of it never gets taxed at all.
Because here’s the twist: The system wasn’t supposed to work this way.
But over time, something changed. Now, the people who live off paychecks carry the tax burden… while the people living off wealth often don’t have to play the game at all.
Professor Madoff explains what happened and what it would take to fix it.
Ray D. Madoff is a professor at Boston College Law School and director of the Forum on Philanthropy and the Public Good. She is a leading expert on tax policy, wealth, and philanthropy, and author of The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy.
Social Media:
@raymadoff
Further reading:
The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy.
The Atlantic - How to Tax Billionaires
CNBC - Lawsuit over $21 million donor-advised fund highlights risks of DAF giving
Washington Post - A Signature GOP Issue Is Omitted From Trump’s ‘Big’ Tax Bill. Weird
New York Times - America Builds an Aristocracy
Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com
Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast
Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social
Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics
Threads: pitchforkeconomics
TikTok: @pitchfork_econ
YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics
LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics
Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer
Substack: The Pitch
More from Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer
What happens to democracy when people can no longer afford the basics of everyday life?
Housing is still ridiculously expensive, and building more housing is absolutely part of the solution. But supply alone won’t fix a system where landlords have the power to jack up rents with the assistance of algorithms, and developers make more money building for the wealthiest in the market, rather than building homes a typical family can afford.
Industrial policy is back at the center of the economic debate. But tariffs, factories, and reshoring are only part of the story. In this 2023 conversation, development economist Isabel Estevez joins Nick and Goldy to argue that industrial policy is ultimately about choices: what we produce, how we produce it, and who benefits. She explains why a smart industrial strategy has to look beyond manufacturing output to workers, communities, climate, public investment, and the broader public good.
We like to think that if a company cheats us, steals our wages, or breaks the law, we can take them to court. Unfortunately, there’s a good chance you’ve already signed that right away.
For 150 years, the price tag made a simple and universal promise: the price you saw was the price everyone saw. Now, that promise is disappearing. This week, Lindsay Owens, President and CEO of the Groundwork Collaborative returns to discuss her new book, Gouged: The End of a Fair Price — And What That Means for Your Wallet. She explains how corporations are using algorithms, personal data, and AI to figure out not what something costs, but how much you personally are willing to pay. From Instacart’s grocery experiments to the coming world of AI shopping agents, the conversation asks a basic question: If nobody knows what the real price is, can markets actually work the way we’re told they do?