----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> <http://www.ctj.org/html/quotes.htm> > > >The Father of Modern Capitalist Thought on Progressive Taxation > > > > > >"The subjects of every state ought to contribute toward the support > >of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their > >respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which > >they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state ....[As > >Henry Home (Lord Kames) has written, a goal of taxation should be > >to] 'remedy inequality of riches as much as possible, by relieving > >the poor and burdening the rich.'" > >Adam Smith ================================ "There is no visible reason why anyone is more or less entitled to the earnings of inherited personal capacities than to those of inherited property in any other form; and similarly, as to capacity resulting from impersonal social processes and accidents..."[page 151] "The simple and obvious remedy for inequality, insofar as it is unjust and is practically remediable, is not planning by a central authority, but progressive taxation, particularly of inheritances, with the use of the proceeds to provide services for the poorer people." [362] "The whole problem of inequality and injustice is rooted in the two factors of natural endowment and the participation of individuals in a total accumulated social inheritance, and this is mental or spiritual or 'cultural', as well as 'material'." [382] "Existing capacities to render service, including ownership of wealth, are in turn the result of the working of the economic process in the past. If we pursue our ethical inquiry backward through the process, we shall find that the same principles work cumulatively, but also that two new ones come into play. The amount and kind of economic power possessed by any person 'now' depends largely on the amount and kind he possessed 'last year'." [9] "The two new principles which come in when considering longer periods of time are inheritance and uncertainty. In an economic order based on the private family, the ownership of wealth by individuals is not dependent alone on the economic role played by them in the past, but largely on the accident or brute fact of inheritance. It is not easy to see how any ethical significance can be attached to the receipt of income from inherited wealth (or training, social position, etc.) on grounds of 'equal freedom' or any sort of personal desert...From an ethical point of view it would be more significant to analyze income into three sources of free choice or effort, inheritance, and luck. And the greatest of these is luck!" [9-10] from Frank Knight's "Freedom and Reform", Harper & Brothers, 1947.
