Professor Ray Madoff Explains How the Rich Avoid Taxes

We Can Do Better · Aug 27, 2026 · 39m · transcript

Ray Madoff teaches tax law at Boston College Law School and is the author of The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy, named a Best Book of 2025 by The New Yorker. Ray has spoken about this important book in all kinds of venues, including the New York Times and NPR podcasts, and has written about this topic for The Atlantic.

In our conversation for We Can Do Better, we talk about why Ray says that, after the Constitution, the tax code is the single most important document affecting American lives. She explains how the country has become a land of two sets of people…