I just came across an unambiguous argument by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations that the rich should pay proportionally more in taxes than the poor, so this is an update to a much earlier post:
The necessities of life occasion the great expence of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expence of the rich; and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be any thing very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expence, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.
SOURCE: Wealth of Nations, Book V, II, Taxes upon the Rent of Houses, par. 59
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment