The Labor Policy of the Free Society
Notes
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
“One of the great illusions about the individual income tax, which tenaciously persists, is that the progressive rates are necessary from the revenue standpoint. The thinking goes that heavy revenue reliance on the tax makes substantial progression inevitable even if not desirable.
“The fallacy of this thinking is shown by the data . . . The entire progressive superstructure produces only 16 per cent of the total revenue derived from the individual tax, or $4.7 billion. The remainder, $24.7 billion, or 84 per cent, is derived from the basic tax rate paid by all income taxpayers on all of their taxable income. It will be noted that half of the revenue from progression ($2,343 million) is taken from the taxable income brackets up through $16,000–$18,000, where the tax rate reaches 50 per cent, and that the other half comes from all higher brackets and rates.” Facing the Issue of Income Tax Discrimination (New York: National Association of Manufacturers, 1955), p. 12.
“Man accumulates property and bequeaths it to his children, so that the children of the rich have an advantage over the poor in the race for success, independently of bodily or mental superiority. On the other hand, the children of parents who are short-lived, and are therefore on an average deficient in health and vigour, come into their property sooner than other children, and will be likely to marry earlier, and leave a larger number of offspring to inherit their inferior constitutions. But the inheritance of property by itself is very far from an evil; for without the accumulation of capital the arts could not progress; and it is chiefly through their power that the civilised races have extended, and are now everywhere extending their range, so as to take the place of the lower races. Nor does the moderate accumulation of wealth interfere with the process of selection. When a poor man becomes moderately rich, his children enter trades or professions in which there is struggle enough, so that the able in body and mind succeed best. The presence of a body of well-instructed men, who have not to labour for their daily bread, is important to a degree which cannot be overestimated; as all high intellectual work is carried on by them, and on such work, material progress of all kinds mainly depends, not to mention other and higher advantages. No doubt wealth when very great tends to convert men into useless drones, but their number is never large; and some degree of elimination here occurs, for we daily see rich men, who happen to be fools or profligate, squandering away their wealth.” Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species and the Descent of Man (Modern Library; New York: Random House, Inc.), p. 502.
