Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/41

 stopped to think that it was because of such tolls as these that other governments waxed fat and irresponsible—and fell?

Our present scheme of taxation is so inequitable and so unwise that it seems almost unnecessary that the diagnosis go any further. If such a plan for revenue were put into effect on the estate we have pictured—a tax on all tools, licenses for blacksmiths, penalties on improvements, punishment for the planting of fruit trees, and irritating tribute on the transfer and consumption of food—we should very soon have a revolting or disappearing tenantry.

This inquiry, then, leads back to the significant question, which will come up repeatedly in this attempt at diagnosis: where, under democracy, does basic economic power lie and how has it escaped just measurement for purposes of assessing responsibility? For surely it is power that should be held responsible and not either activity or need.

The tasks of providing sanitation and education have been honestly attempted; but they have been hopelessly impeded by the fact that our system of taxation has no relation to the purposes of democracy, being a deplorable method of raising funds from the producer, taken over without scrutiny from our deposed tyrants.

The prevention of unemployment is one of our conspicuous failures. No vicious or ignorant landlord could have done worse than we. To have an unoccupied body of labor, breeding crime and discontent, and forming in time of its misery a weapon capable of use by an unscrupulous or harassed employer against a more scrupulous or generous employer, and, in time of desperation, becoming a menace to the state, is to deliberately invite trouble and catastrophe. We deal with this situation so childishly, with our prattling of “minimum-wage,” when we have no minimum value for our dollar, and of unemployment insurance, when there is crying need for labor, that the very kings and barons we cast out must smile sardonically if they can see us. What would any sane landlord do, confronted