1.-- Of the Public Revenues
The public revenues are a portion that each subject gives of his property, in order to secure or enjoy the remainder.
To fix these revenues in a proper manner, regard should be had both to the necessities of the state and to those of the subject. The real wants of the people ought never to give way to the imaginary wants of the state.
Imaginary wants are those which flow from the passions and the weakness of the governors, from the vain conceit of some extraordinary project, from the inordinate desire of glory, and from a certain impotence of mind incapable of withstanding the impulse of fancy. Often have ministers of a restless disposition imagined that the wants of their own mean and ignoble souls were those of the state.
Nothing requires more wisdom and prudence than the regulation of that portion of which the subject is deprived, and that which he is suffered to retain.
The public revenues should not be measured by the people's abilities to give, but by what they ought to give; and if they are measured by their abilities to give, it should be considered what they are able to give for a constancy.
Discussion of the Laffer curve.
Argument in favor of progressive tax rates.
Argument in favor of consumption tax at the point of sale, the better to disguise the tax from the consumer. Possibility of a progressive consumption tax (VAT?).
Long discussion of use and abuse of taxes in various types of regimes, and the danger of gaming the system for private advantage.
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That was a fun chapter. Good to end on a high note.
One thing I've discovered from wrestling with this book-- this project needs to stick to genuine literature as much as possible. The technical stuff is awful. (I don't know if that will put The Wealth of Nations in danger or not.) Of course, crossover works like Plato's Republic (and hopefully Thucydides) will still make the cut.
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