A TAX FOR IDLERS.

Patea Mail, 31 August 1880, Page 3

A TAX FOR IDLERS.

It is all very well to laugh at M. Giraud, who has brought in a bill for taxing all idle folks in France. Those who do so—and their name is legion if counted on the Boulevards alone—are mostly under the delusion that the idea is original ; but M. Franciquc Sarccy combats this impression, and makes out that the real author of the suggestion was Alexander Dumas. In his “ Question d’ Argent,” the novelist introduces a political economist sighing for the time when there will bo established a “ civil conscription.” When wars have vanished from the scene, and industrial arts have taken their place, all that society will require of her children will be as this theorist declares, “ the tribute of their intellectual capacities.” As soon as a man is 21, the State will ask him, “ What profession have you chosen ?■" and if it finds that he neither has one nor intends to do any work, it will impose upon him the necessity of finding a substitute ; that is to say, will exact from him a tax or tine for his idleness. In return for this payment he will be furnished with an “ idler ’ certificate,” the production of which will enable him to pass freely about the country.