Progressive taxation
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
That taxes cannot be legitimately established except by the consent of the people or its representatives, is a truth generally admitted by all philosophers and jurists of any repute on...
...But if a great man himself is robbed or insulted, the whole police force is immediately in motion, and woe even to innocent persons who chance to be suspected...
...The more humanity owes him, the more society denies him...
...If the militia is to be raised or the highway to be mended, he is always given the preference...
...I will permit you to have the honour of serving me, on condition that you bestow on me the little you have left, in return for the pains I shall take to command you...
...In the first place, we have to consider the relation of quantities, according to which, ceteris paribus, the person who has ten times the property of another man Excerpted from The Social Contract and Discourses, translated and with an introduction by G.D.H...
...But this is false: for a grandee has two legs just like a cowherd, and like him again, but one belly...
...Reprinted by permission of Everyman's Library, David Campbell Publishers, Ltd...
...If a man of eminence robs his creditors, or is guilty of other knaveries, is he not always assured of impunity...
...These proportions appear at first very easy to note, because, being relative to each man's position in the world, their incidence is always public: but proper regard is seldom paid to all the elements that should enter into such a calculation, even apart from deception arising from avarice, fraud, and self-interest...
...Are not the assaults, acts of violence, assassination, and even murders committed by the great, matters that are hushed up in a few months, and of which nothing more is thought...
...Putting all these considerations carefully together, we shall find that, in order to levy taxes in a truly equitable and proportionate manner, the imposition ought not to be in simple ratio to the property of the contributors, but in compound ratio to the difference of their conditions and the superfluity of their possessions...
...Are not all lucrative posts in their hands...
...320-324...
...That taxes cannot be legitimately established except by the consent of the people or its representatives, is a truth generally admitted by all philosophers and jurists of any repute on questions of public right...
...for otherwise nothing can be more disproportionate than such a tax...
...but when it grants the product of an imposition, it is called a tax...
...for this provides a powerful protection for the immense possessions of the rich, and hardly leaves the poor man in quiet possession of the cottage he builds with his own hands...
...Both are called taxes or subsidies: when the people fixes the sum to be paid, it is called subsidy...
...He who possesses only the common necessaries of life should pay nothing at all, while the tax on him who is in possession of superfluities may justly be extended to everything he has over and above mere necessaries...
...Are not all privileges and exemptions reserved for them alone...
...ought to pay ten times as much to the State...
...he always bears the burden which his richer neighbor has influence enough to get exempted from...
...and it is in the observations of exact proportions that the spirit of liberty consists...
...1:3 8 • DISSENT...
...SPRING • 1996 • 7 Comments and Opinions How different is the case of the poor man...
...real, levied on commodities, and personal, paid by the head...
...Is not the public authority always on their side...
...But if a tax by heads were exactly proportioned to the circumstances of individuals, as what is called the capitation tax in France might be, it would be the most equitable and consequently the most proper for freemen...
...Cole, 1950, pp...
...Contributions levied on the people are two kinds...
...To this he will possibly object that, when his rank is taken into account, what may be superfluous to a man of inferior station is necessary for him...
...We are told in The Spirit of the Laws that a capitulation tax is most suited to slavery, and a real tax most in accordance with liberty...
...Secondly, the relation of the use made, that is to say, the distinction between necessaries and superfluities...
...Are not all the advantages of society for the rich and powerful...
...Every door is shut against him, even when he has a right to its being opened: and if ever he obtains justice, it is with much greater difficulty than others obtain favours...
...On the least accident that happens to him, everybody avoids him: if his cart be overturned in the road, so far is he from receiving any assistance, that he is lucky if he does not get horse-whipped by the impudent lackeys of some young duke: in a word, all gratuitous assistance is denied to the poor when they need it, just because they cannot pay for it...
...Athird relation, which is never taken into account, though it ought to be the chief consideration, is the advantage that every person derives from the social confederacy...
...We will therefore come to an agreement...
...The terms of the social compact between these two estates of men may be summed up in a few words: "You have need of me, because I am rich and you are poor...
...This would be incontestable, if the circumstances of every person were equal...
Vol. 43 • April 1996 • No. 2
