The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy

by Ray D. Madoff

A revelatory book that lifts the curtain on America’s most consequential public how the rich get richer using tools the government gave them.

Amid conflicting narratives about the drivers of wealth and inequality in the United States, one constant hovers in the the US tax code. No political force has been more consequential—or more utterly opaque—than the 7,000-page document that details who pays what in American society and government. Most of us have a sense that it’s an unfair system. But does anyone know exactly how it’s unfair?

Legal scholar Ray D. Madoff knows. In The Second Estate, she offers an unprecedented look behind the scenes of America’s byzantine system of taxation, laying bare not only its capacity to consolidate wealth but also the mechanisms by which it has created two fundamentally separate American the working Americans who pay and the ultra-rich who benefit.

This is not a story of offshore accounts or secret tax havens. In The Second Estate, Madoff shows that the US system itself has, over time, been stripped and reconstituted such that it now offers a series of secret paths, hidden in plain sight, for wealthy people in the know to avoid taxation altogether. Through the strategic avoidance of traditional income, leveraging of investments and debt, and exploitation of rules designed to promote charitable giving, America’s wealthy do more than just pay less than their share; they remove themselves from the tax system entirely. Wealth becomes its own sovereign state, and the living is surprisingly—and maddeningly—cheap.
 

Genres: Nonfiction, American, History

192 pages, Hardcover

Published October 21, 2025

Reviews

[Heidi Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can attest that this book is indeed a page-turner about the American tax code. Among other things, I learned how the ultra rich have been allowed to shelter their money and avoid funding the government through taxes like the rest of us. It’s a fascinating history lesson and a truly engaging read. Important, timely, and highly recommended.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

An accessible, easy to read, page turner on how the rich get RICHER. Frequently humorous and always incisive and trenchant, Madoff explains how the Ultra-Wealthy have opted out of paying taxes and what it means for democracy in America. I found something revelatory on every page!!! Highest recommendation!!!

[Gabriel Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most page-turning book on taxes ever published! If feel like you have a vague sense that the tax system is rigged but want to understand how, run, don’t walk to this book.

[Anya Silverman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kudos to an academic who can make taxes not only accessible but INTERESTING and informative to a lay person 👏

This should be required reading for everyone and then we’d all be empowered together to organize and change the tax code forever so the ultraaaaa wealthy don’t keep scamming our country and ruining everything 😒

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read about how we can actually fix tax policy

This was a great read with some really interesting parts about how we can realistically tax wealth in a non destructive way. Hope we can see some of these show up as policies for our politicians. Highly recommend reading this if you want to deeper than just “tax the rich”

[Jesus Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot stress how important books like this are. Depressing certainly, but super important. It shows how taxes play a crucial role, in developing equitable societies and how inversely detrimental it is to disproportionately lower them, in favor of a class of people. I wish I can send every American this book.


Very concise, super informative,Thank you.

[Timothy Haggerty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good summery of the unequal tax system

I read this and other books highlighting problems that seem to me to violate the Preamble to the Constitution. Today you only see Mr Orwell's Animal Farm where "All animals are equal, except some are more equal than others"