Dominic Frisby

How Tax Shaped Our Past and Will Change Our Future

Daylight Robbery

In 2008, while the world was busy panicking about the global financial crisis, a computer programmer called Satoshi Nakamoto posted a message on an out-of-the-way mailing list. 'I've been working on a new electronic cash system, ' he said. 'It might make sense to get some just in case it catches on.' Nobody seemed to care. - book cover.

The Future of Money

Bitcoin

In 2006, the comedian Dominic Frisby began to question the advice his financial advisers were giving him and began to look after his own money. He was fascinated by the world of finance. Mad though his friends and family thought him at the time, he put everything he owned into gold, which subsequently appreciated by several hundred per cent. Soon MoneyWeek were asking him to write a weekly column and he began seven years of obsessive reading and study. Life After the State is the culmination of that process. Just as Frisby saw the financial crash of 2008 coming, he now sees another one, even more calamitous, headed our way - only this one has serious political ramifications as well. But not one high-profile politician, economist or journalist seems to 'get it' - because not one of them has correctly identified the cause of the problem. For Frisby, the problem is the State. In every instance where government gets involved in people's lives with a desire to do good, it can always be relied on to make the situation much, much worse. Yet despite this reality, we all seem to imagine that a world without the state would be a wild and terrifying place. With wit and devastating clarity of argument, Frisby shows that human nature proves the opposite to be true. Combining the paradigm-busting wisdom of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan with the readable charm of Freakonomics, Life After the State is a book that will change the way you think about money, education, healthcare and social justice for ever.

Life After the State

In 2006, the comedian Dominic Frisby began to question the advice his financial advisers were giving him and began to look after his own money. He was fascinated by the world of finance. Mad though his friends and family thought him at the time, he put everything he owned into gold, which subsequently appreciated by several hundred per cent. Soon MoneyWeek were asking him to write a weekly column and he began seven years of obsessive reading and study. Life After the State is the culmination of that process. Just as Frisby saw the financial crash of 2008 coming, he now sees another one, even more calamitous, headed our way – only this one has serious political ramifications as well. But not one high-profile politician, economist or journalist seems to 'get it' – because not one of them has correctly identified the cause of the problem. For Frisby, the problem is the State. In every instance where government gets involved in people's lives with a desire to do good, it can always be relied on to make the situation much, much worse. Yet despite this reality, we all seem to imagine that a world without the state would be a wild and terrifying place. With wit and devastating clarity of argument, Frisby shows that human nature proves the opposite to be true. Combining the paradigm-busting wisdom of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan with the readable charm of Freakonomics, Life After the State is a book that will change the way you think about money, education, healthcare and social justice for ever.

Featured on Stepping up with Nigel Farage Death and taxes are our inevitable fate. We've been told this since the beginning of civilisation. But what if we stopped to question our antiquated system? Is it fair? And is it capable of serving the needs of our rapidly-changing, modern society? In Daylight Robbery, Dominic Frisby traces the origins of taxation, from its roots in the ancient world, through to today. He explores the role of tax in the formation of our global religions, the part tax played in wars and revolutions throughout the ages, why, at one stage, we paid tax for daylight or for growing a beard. Ranging from the despotic to the absurd, the tax laws of the past reveal so much about how we got to where we are today and what we can do to build a system fit for the future. 'This entertaining, surprising, contrarian book is a tour de force!' - Matt Ridley, author of The Evolution of Everything 'In this spectacular gallop through history, Frisby shows how taxation has warped, stunted and thwarted human progress' - Mark Littlewood, Director General, Institute of Economic Affairs 'Frisby's historical interpretation and utopian ideas will outrage Left and Right' - Steve Baker, MP for Wycombe and Member of the House of Commons Treasury Committee 'Fascinating book which exposes the political and economic basis of tax. A must read for those of us who believe in simpler, lower taxes' - Rt Hon Liz Truss, MP for South West Norfolk, Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade

Dominic Frisby

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