Ruth Braunstein, "My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying in America" (Princeton UP, 2025)

May 9, 2025

Ruth Braunstein, an Associate Professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, explores the intricate relationship between morality and taxpaying in America. She delves into diverse perspectives, from anti-government tax defiers to those viewing tax contributions as civic duty. The discussion highlights taxation as a complex ritual intertwined with societal values, revealing how citizens interpret their financial responsibilities. Braunstein urges a deeper ethical discourse on taxation, reflecting the cultural significance of 'my tax dollars' in shaping democratic engagement.

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INSIGHT

Moral Depth of Taxpaying

Taxes evoke deep moral emotions, positive or negative, about citizenship and government relations.
These emotions transform taxpaying from a chore into a meaningful political practice for many Americans.

ANECDOTE

Profiles of Tax Moralists

Braunstein interviewed anti-war activists, anti-abortion campaigners, and anti-government tax protesters.
These groups exemplify deeply moral and contested views on taxpaying rarely found in mainstream conversations.

INSIGHT

Taxation as Social Contract

Taxes symbolize the material embodiment of the social contract in America.
Debates on taxes proxy for larger moral struggles about citizenship, rights, and the limits of state power.

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In My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying in America (Princeton University Press, 2025), Ruth 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.

Though taxpaying is often portrayed as dull and technical, exposure to collective rituals, civic education, propaganda, and protest transforms the practice for many Americans into either a sacred rite of citizenship or a profane threat to what they hold dear. These sacred and profane meanings can apply to the act of taxpaying itself or to the specific uses of tax dollars. Despite intense disagreement about these meanings, politically diverse Americans engaged in both taxpaying and tax resistance valorize the individual taxpayer and “my tax dollars.”
Braunstein explores the profound implications of this meaning making for tax consent, the legitimacy of the tax system, and citizens’ broader understandings of their political relationships. Going beyond the usual focus on tax policy, Braunstein’s innovative view of taxation through the lens of cultural sociology shows how citizens in value-diverse societies coalesce around shared visions of the sacred and fears of the profane.

Interviewee: Ruth Braunstein is Associate Professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut.

Host: Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press). Visit him online at ZalmanNewfield.com.

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