Chapter I. On The General Principles Of Taxation.

to this question, [pg 541] it appears to me that the portion of truth which the doctrine contains arises principally from the difference between a tax which can be saved from luxuries and one which trenches, in ever so small a degree, upon the necessaries of life. To take a thousand a year from the possessor of ten thousand would not deprive him of anything really conducive either to the support or to the comfort of existence; and, if such would be the effect of taking five pounds from one whose income is fifty, the sacrifice required from the last is not only greater than, but entirely incommensurable with, that imposed upon the first. The mode of adjusting these inequalities of pressure which seems to be the most equitable is that recommended by Bentham, of leaving a certain minimum of income, sufficient to provide the necessaries of life, untaxed. Suppose [ $250] a y e a r t o b e s u f f i c i e n t t o p r o v i d e t h e n u m b e r o f p e r s o n s o r d i n a r i l y s u p p o r t e d f r o m a s i n g l e i n c o m e w i t h t h e r e q u i s i t e s o f l i f e a n d h e a l t h, a n d w i t h p r o t e c t i o n a g a i n s t h a b i t u a l b o d i l y s u f f e r i n g, b u t n o t w i t h a n y i n d u l g e n c e . T h i s t h e n s h o u l d b e m a d e t h e m i n i m u m, a n d i n c o m e s e x c e e d i n g i t s h o u l d p a y t a x e s n o t u p o n t h e i r w h o l e a m o u n t, b u t u p o n t h e s u r p l u s . I f t h e t a x b e t e n p e r c e n t, a n i n c o m e o f [300] s h o u l d b e c o n s i d e r e d a s a n e t i n c o m e o f [50], a n d c h a r g e d w i t h [5] a y e a r & # x 0002 C; w h i l e a n i n c o m e o f [5, 000] s h o u l d b e c h a r g e d a s o n e o f [$ 4,750]. An income not exceeding [$250] should not be taxed at all, either directly or by taxes on necessaries; for, as by supposition this is the smallest income which labor ought to be

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