The Morality of Taxpaying in America

In this talk, Ruth Braunstein delves into how paying taxes became a moral battleground in American public life.

Ruth Braunstein studies religion, politics, and money. In her new book, My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying in America, Braunstein maps the contested moral landscape in which Americans experience and make sense of the tax system. Braunstein tells the stories of Americans who view taxpaying as more than a mundane chore: antigovernment tax defiers who challenge the legitimacy of the tax system, antiwar activists who resist the use of their taxes to fund war, antiabortion activists against “taxpayer funded abortions,” and a diverse group of people who promote taxpaying as a moral good.

The Doll Lecture on Religion and Money was established in 2007 by Henry C. Doll ’58 and his family. It reflects the family’s longstanding interest in the subject of philanthropy and its relationship with religion.