Chevalier, THE TAX SOMETIMES
TAKES THE FORM OF A LEVY ON POLLS. Well, in what case is it just
that the tax should take the form of a levy on polls? Is it
always, or never? What is the principle of the tax? What is its
object? Speak, answer.
And what instruction, pray, can we derive from the remark,
scarcely worthy of quotation, that THE TREASURY ADDRESSES ITSELF
TO LABOR AS WELL AS TO CONSUMPTION, TO REAL MORE THAN TO PERSONAL
PROPERTY, TO AGRICULTURE MORE THAN TO MANUFACTURES? Of what
consequence to science is this interminable recital of crude
facts, if your analysis never extracts a single idea from them?
All the deductions made from consumption by taxation, rent,
interest on capital, etc., enter into the general expense account
and figure in the selling price, so that nearly always the
consumer pays the tax: that we know. And as the goods most
consumed are also those which yield the most revenue, it
necessarily follows that the poorest people are the most heavily
burdened: this consequence, like the first, is inevitable.
Pages:
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567