HIGH TAXATION.
DO THE PUBLIC BENEFIT?
The average socialist politician is strong’ for (lie policy of taxing weallli. lit? would crowd on to (lit 1 rich all Iho hardens of taxation poss'lde, Land tax. Income tax, Sur lax, super tax and finally, capita,! levy—till are considered desirable as means of exploiting the wealthy. This craze for high taxation, and ever higher, is due to some degree of illusion as to what the wealth of the rich consists of and how it: is placed. The picture is drawn of a fat man living in luxurious, idleness and whose general hogishness in consumption leaves other people in want. This is held up as the type of the wealthy. It is a gross caricature and deception save as applied to decadent individuals who do not actually count amongst the wealthy and' successful as a class. The wealthy of importance arc those whose riches are in mines, shipping, farming, foundries, motors, manufactures, general transport, and exchange undertakings. To take the wealth of these by high taxation may not touch the individual personally, but very seriously affects the industry or business to the detriment of the public.
Over and over it has been explained that even in the instances where the high rates are actually effective and the taxes arc paid, the public gels from the rich mail less than it would gain if it allowed him to keep it and use it in industry. The chief difficulty in all this discussion and in the broad discussion of wealth distribution, is in getting a general understanding of the community value of private wealth. These taxes, heavy as they are, seldom cut enough to compel any personal economies,by the tax-payer. They do not
affect his living expenditure, hut merely reduce Ihe amount ho would otherwise invest in Ihe expansion of the industry. Henry Ford has a very ■•Sai grasp of this. Mr Ford: “That it would make little difference to him. so far as personal eomfort or expenditures are concerned, whether the taxes took one per eeni. or Of! per cent, of his prolit*. If he had one per cent. left it would still supply all he would care to -pend on himself, and whatever he has left above his living expenses he always has expended and expects always to expend upon industrial development. Whatever is taken from him to he expended by public ollleials means just so much of a curtailment of his
enterprises.” “The increases in number* of workmen employed hv Mr Ford from say 1.000 men to 1 OH.OOO men and more, has mean! nothing to him in the sense of personal ijain: no part of the additional earnings have been devoted in him; they have all been used to provide the e<|uipment re<'|uired for the employment of more wage-earners and pay more wages; all ihe gains of the larger business have boon used for the development of the industry anil to produce an increasing output of cheap ears, wanted hv the millions. PROTECTION OF CAPITAL. Tt would he as well if the people in general could understand that the cutting in on capital by high luxation is against their interests whether thov are commercial, men, housekeepers, or labourers. It should he recognised that earnings devoted to industry are as truly given to a public purpose as though it were owned by the State; indeed the private industry serves greater public needs by being in general more productive than the political and iJlieiitllv overweighted Stale enterprises. Those who seek the social welfare then should strive for the protection of capital and not its decimation.
The more wealth the politicians got control of' Ihe greater the waste and the greater the demand for still more taxation. With the increase of loan burdens and State trading in Australia the taxes have gone up rather than down and this because capital is diverted from proper channels of production to serve political ends where there are endless leakages which leave both the State and the individual hut the poorer. The more capital is loft free for productive purposes and the less it is levied on by taxation the greater will he the total wealth produced from which all citizens must more or losshen e fit. In our opinion high taxation of productive-wealth is mi evil that society should endeavour to escape from as it injuries all and by no means least the mass of wage-earn-ers who live by our industries. (Contributed by the N.Z. Well arc League).
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2745, 14 June 1924, Page 4
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750HIGH TAXATION. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2745, 14 June 1924, Page 4
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