登陆注册
5381100000115

第115章

Accordingly we always see the legislator stopping, in his fiscal laws, before the subversive consequences of the progressive tax, and consecrating the necessity, the immutability of the proportional tax.For equality in well- being cannot result from the violation of capital: the antinomy must be methodically solved, under penalty, for society, of falling back into chaos.Eternal justice does not accommodate itself to all the whims of men: like a woman, whom one may outrage, but whom one does not marry without a solemn alienation of one's self, it demands on our part, with the abandonment of our egoism, the recognition of all its rights, which are those of science.

The tax, whose final purpose, as we have shown, is the reward of the non- producers, but whose original idea was a restoration of the laborer, -- the tax, under the system of monopoly, reduces itself therefore to a pure and simple protest, a sort of extra-judicial act, the whole effect of which is to aggravate the situation of the wage-worker by disturbing the monopolist in his possession.As for the idea of changing the proportional tax into a progressive tax, or, to speak more accurately, of reversing the order in which the tax progresses, that is a blunder the entire responsibility for which belongs to the economists.

But henceforth menace hovers over privilege.With the power of modifying the proportionality of the tax, government has under its hand an expeditious and sure means of dispossessing the holders of capital when it will; and it is a frightful thing to see everywhere that great institution, the basis of society, the object of so many controversies, of so many laws, of so many cajoleries, and of so many crimes, PROPERTY, suspended at the end of a thread over the yawning mouth of the proletariat.

3.-- Disastrous and inevitable consequences of the tax.(Provisions, sumptuary laws, rural and industrial police, patents, trade-marks, etc.)

M.Chevalier addressed to himself, in July, 1843, on the subject of the tax, the following questions:

(1) Is it asked of all or by preference of a part of the nation? (2)

Does the tax resemble a levy on polls, or is it exactly proportioned to the fortunes of the tax-payers? (3) Is agriculture more or less burdened than manufactures or commerce? (4) Is real estate more or less spared than personal property? (5) Is he who produces more favored than he who consumes?

(6) Have our taxation laws the character of sumptuary laws?

To these various questions M.Chevalier makes the reply which I am about to quote, and which sums up all of the most philosophical considerations upon the subject which I have met:

(a) The tax affects the universality, applies to the mass, takes the nation as a whole; nevertheless, as the poor are the most numerous, it taxes them willingly, certain of collecting more.(b) By the nature of things the tax sometimes takes the form of a levy on polls, as in the case of the salt tax.(c, d, e) The treasury addresses itself to labor as well as to consumption, because in France everybody labors, to real more than to personal property, and to agriculture more than to manufactures.(f)

By the same reasoning, our laws partake little of the character of sumptuary laws.

What, professor! is that all that science has taught you? The tax applies to the mass, you say; it takes the nation as a whole.Alas! we know it only too well; but it is this which is iniquitous, and which we ask you to explain.The government, when engaged in the assessment and distribution of the tax, could not have believed, did not believe, that all fortunes were equal; consequently it could not have wished, did not wish, the sums paid to be equal.Why, then, is the practice of the government always the opposite of its theory? Your opinion, if you please, on this difficult matter? Explain; justify or condemn the exchequer; take whatever course you will, provided you take some course and say something.Remember that your readers are men, and that they cannot excuse in a doctor, speaking ex cathedra, such propositions as this: as the poor are the most numerous, it taxes them willingly, certain of collecting more.No, Monsieur: numbers do not regulate the tax; the tax knows perfectly well that millions of poor added to millions of poor do not make one voter.You render the treasury odious by making it absurd, and I maintain that it is neither the one nor the other.The poor man pays more than the rich because Providence, to whom misery is odious like vice, has so ordered things that the miserable must always be the most ground down.The iniquity of the tax is the celestial scourge which drives us towards equality.God! if a professor of political economy, who was formerly an apostle, could but understand this revelation!

By the nature of things, says M.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?

同类推荐
  • 平书

    平书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 狱中杂记

    狱中杂记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 辽金元宫词

    辽金元宫词

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 媚幽阁文娱

    媚幽阁文娱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 终南山祖庭仙真内传

    终南山祖庭仙真内传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 受益终生的精粹:受益终生的音乐精粹

    受益终生的精粹:受益终生的音乐精粹

    《受益终生的精粹:受益终生的音乐精粹》讲述了电影、诗歌、国学、西学、美术、文学、音乐、处世。从浩如烟海的这些人文艺术作品中,作者用精炼、经典的标准,以青少年的角度,拣选出一篇篇美文、一幅幅名画、一部部佳作、一首首名曲。集成使人终生受益的5个单册,另以代表中华智慧的诸子百家与充满哲理的西方先贤大师名言名篇编辑成《国学精粹》、《西学精粹》,这既是了解学习人类人文艺术的上佳之作,也是必不可少的家藏书籍。
  • 洪荒之太一证道路

    洪荒之太一证道路

    这是一个巫妖联合,妖天巫地,一统洪荒,镇压一切不服的故事。龙汉劫时,太一沟通大罗天,庇护周天星神。其后,开辟九重天阙,建立无上神庭,再现神族荣光。巫妖联手,建立太极混元大阵,抽取无边混沌之气,延缓量劫的到来。以洪荒为根基,跨越时间线,征伐无穷异世界,建立至高天庭的故事。本书书友群:五、七、一、九、五、八、九、四、九
  • 近事会元

    近事会元

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 丁玲精选集

    丁玲精选集

    20世纪是一个不寻常的世纪。20世纪的社会生活风云激荡,沧桑巨变,20世纪的华文文学也波澜壮阔,气象万千。上承19世纪,下启21世纪的20世纪华文文学,在与社会生活的密切连接和与时代情绪的遥相呼应中,积极地开拓进取和不断地自我革新,以其大起大伏、大开大阖的自身演进,书写了中华民族五千年华彩乐章中光辉灿烂的一页。这是一个古老民族焕发出青春活力的精神写照,更是一笔浓墨重彩、彪炳史册的文化财富。20世纪的华文文学必将成为中华民族文化传统中的重要构成为后世所传承,20世纪的那些杰出的华文文学作品必将作为经典为后人所记取。
  • 荒火

    荒火

    《荒火》这样一部书,在抗战胜利七十周年之际出版,意义不言自明。作品写了一段历史、一种信仰和一种抗侮不屈的民族精神,用生活在这片土地上的人的特殊情感,记录、描摹了先辈的苦难和光荣,以及对历史淹没的追思。
  • 富爸爸家训2

    富爸爸家训2

    最近,美国某州评选出来的优秀教师在家庭教育方面向家长提出以下十条建议,让父母不仅拥有“慈爱的目光”,更能拥有“长远的眼光”! 本书观点新颖、行文流畅,是极具现代教育理念的家庭教育手册,或许也能给新时期的家庭教育带来一次方法与理念的革新,是父母们的首选读物。
  • 重生帝女凰途

    重生帝女凰途

    前世,她是镇南王府嫡女,领兵南征北战,助父王庶兄夺得天下。却落得和亲蛮族、孕中惨死的下场。他,是千机门门主,江湖上关于他的传闻有二“智多近妖”、“生人勿近”,却心甘情愿只做她的谋臣。“阿玉,你若要这天下,我定呕心沥血为你送上。”上一世他的誓言犹在耳。重活一次,她誓死也要保护她爱的和爱她的人!
  • 双城纪

    双城纪

    余年夏从古朴大气的南京,到小桥流水的苏州,始终深陷爱情囹圄并极力逃脱。可这突如其来的爱情依旧如影随形伴随她一生。33岁才初恋会不会为时已晚?詹斐君相信不管是30岁、40岁或50岁遇见她都会无可避免的爱上她。他爱得隐忍克制,她热情自由,却被他的深沉打动,然而最终选择了望而却步。待老之将至,他才重逢了这心心念念了一生的爱。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 黛玉露华浓

    黛玉露华浓

    池塘冷风曳动,池水深幽,她被藕节绊倒,眼睛一黑,瞬间没在池子里。生死恍惚中,似乎有人唤她的名字,但她已经不能睁眼了。来不及想推的人是谁,她已在凄冷的水底。红楼遗梦,黛玉重生。未想这一世心中良人竟是他。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 穿越位面的魔方

    穿越位面的魔方

    罗摩凭借一个小小的魔方,在位面中游历学习成长。