" Adam Smith had already
said before him: "It is not unreasonable that the rich man
should contribute to the public expenses, not only in proportion
to his income, but something more." "I will go further," adds
Say; "I will not fear to say that the progressive tax is the only
equitable tax." And M. J. Garnier, the latest abridger of the
economists, says: "Reforms should tend to establish a
progressional equality, if I may use the phrase, much more just,
much more equitable, than the pretended equality of taxation,
which is only a monstrous inequality."
So, according to general opinion and the testimony of the
economists, two things are acknowledged: one, that in its
principle the tax is a reaction against monopoly and directed
against the rich; the other, that in practice this same tax is
false to its object; that, in striking the poor by preference, it
commits an injustice; and that the constant effort of the
legislator must be to distribute its burden in a more equitable
fashion.
I needed to establish this double fact solidly before passing to
other considerations: now commences my criticism.
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