Progressive Taxation Quotes

• It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.

  Adam Smith

  Rich, Economics, Should

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.355

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• I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in . . . a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, . . . increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Believe, Political, Size

  Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge (2017). “The Complete Works of Theodore Roosevelt”, p.3154, Madison & Adams Press

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• The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities.

  Adam Smith

  Government, Support, States

  Adam Smith (1778). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.425

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• The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess ... It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.

  Adam Smith

  Vanity, Luxury, House

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• Progressive taxation of income and profits means that precisely those parts of the income which people would have saved and invested are taxed away

  Ludwig von Mises

  Mean, People, Income

  Ludwig Von Mises (2006). “Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow”, p.84, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• Taxes are necessary. But the system of discriminatory taxation universally accepted under the misleading name of progressive taxation of income and inheritance is not a mode of taxation. It is rather a mode of disguised expropriation of the successful capitalists and entrepreneurs.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Successful, Names, Entrepreneur

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• No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Dollars, Wealth

  Theodore Roosevelt (2014). “Selected Speeches and Writings of Theodore Roosevelt”, p.117, Vintage

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• The liberals who demanded equality of taxation on behalf of the poor, for instance, did not imagine that they would obtain progressive taxation to the disadvantage of the well-off, and that they would end up with an arrangement in which taxes are voted by those who do not pay them.

  Vilfredo Pareto

  Philosophy, Political, Pay

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• For a very small expence the public can facilitate, can encourage, and can even impose upon almost the whole body of the people, the necessity of acquiring those most essential parts of education.

  Adam Smith

  People, Essentials, Body

  Adam Smith, William Playfair (1811). “An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations”, p.214

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• The U.S. is the country that invented progressive taxation of income and of inherited wealth in the 1910s and 20s.

  Thomas Piketty

  Country, Income, Wealth

  "Economist says U.S. inequality reaching "spectacular" heights". Interview with Alain Sherter, www.cbsnews.com. June 5, 2014.

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• Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Encouragement, Jobs, School

  Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.17, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The philosophy underlying the system of progressive taxation is that the income and wealth of the well-to-do classes can be freely tapped. What the advocates of these tax rates fail to realize is that the greater part of the incomes taxed away would not have been consumed but saved and invested.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Philosophy, Class, Income

  Ludwig von Mises (2015). “Middle of the Road Policy Leads to Socialism”, p.32, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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