Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/770

 75° THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

extent shifted from poverty upon honesty. The honest and simple-minded man pays all the taxes; while the very shrewd, or the reckless perjurer, goes free. But even with regard to build- ings and other improvements on land, much the same thing is true. The homes of the poor are of such comparatively uniform value that they can be assessed with great precision. But the dwellings and factories of the rich depend for their salable value upon a multitude of considerations, concerning which assessors must be ignorant. Their value is judged entirely from their outside appearance, which is often quite deceptive, and which is systematically made so when the pressure of taxation becomes heav)'. And both as to personal property and improve- ments upon land, taxation operates as a heavy discouragement upon industry and progress, and most especially discourages all that class of improvements which the owner shares with his neighbors. The man who keeps his sidewalk well paved, his front garden green and bright, and the whole exterior of his house a delight to the eye, is heavily punished by taxation ; while the man who leaves the outside of his house to decay, although constantly adding to the beauty of the interior, is very lightly taxed.

A vast majority of taxes, everywhere, are, however, indirect. All such taxes must, in the very nature of things, be collected mainly from those who are relatively poor ; because every indi- rect tax is levied in proportion to what a man consumes, and not in proportion to his wealth. The millionaire's family eats very little more food than the family of any hard-working mechanic. They do not wear any more clothes at any one time ; although they undoubtedly have a greater assortment of clothing, of a more valuable kind. But, except in rare cases of extravagance, the difference between the value of a rich man's clothing and the value of a comparatively poor man's bears no sort of relation to the difference between their respective wealth. All taxes upon movable goods, therefore, bear with tremendous dispropor- tion upon the poor, to the comparative exemption of the rich. Nor is it possible to avoid this result. The often expressed idea that large taxes can be collected from the luxuries of the rich is