Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... I. The Pr1nc1ple Of Equal1ty That equality in taxation means a relative equality few will deny.1 It means that there should be the same relative economic conditions after as before the tax. Viewed with respect to ability to pay it means that there should be the same relative economic ability after as before the tax for the satisfaction of personal wants. Subjectively considered-- as equality of sacrifice--it means that there should be the same relative intensity of feeling of wants unsatisfied because of the tax; or, if you will, of the wants last attaining satisfaction. Or, again, since income is the primary factor in the determination of (objective) ability, equality in taxation means that the tax should take such portions of income as will leave the same relative amounts for the satisfaction of private needs, their objective importance, or their subjective intensity being considered; or it means that income should be so distributed between the satisfaction of collective and private needs--between public and private expenditure-- that there shall be the same proportional satisfaction, the same proportional expenditure, for each when viewed with reference to their relative importance, or their relative intensities. The problem of realizing equality in taxation, therefore, is a problem of the just distribution of taxes, or of the just distribution of income between collective and private wants. The question, then, resolves itself into this, What proportions of different incomes must be taken so that the tax may be proportioned to ability, and thereby a relative equality be established? In other words, in distributing the tax so as to 1 Von Hock, as we have seen, makes exception of the tax for the protection of the person, which he thinks...
