The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics
Philosophy
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics
Economics; Philosophy
I proceed to what is called the crown. It signifies a nominal office of
a million sterling a year, the business of which consists in receiving
the money. Whether the person be wise or foolish, sane or insane, a
native or a foreigner, matters not. The hazard to which this office is
exposed in all countries is not from anything that can happen to the
man, but from what may happen to the nation--the danger of its coming to
its senses.
I shall now turn to the matter of lessening the burden of taxes. The
amount of taxation now levied may be taken in round numbers at
£17,000,000, nine millions of which are appropriated to the payment of
interest on the national debt, and eight millions to the current
expenses of each year.
All circumstances taken together, arising from the French revolution,
from the approaching harmony of the two nations, the abolition of court
intrigue on both sides, and the progress of knowledge in the science of
governing, the annual expenditure might be put back to one million and a
half--half a million each for Navy, Army, and expenses of government.
Three hundred representatives fairly elected are sufficient for all the
purposes to which legislation can apply. They may be divided into two
or three houses, or meet in one, as in France. If an allowance of £500
per annum were made to each representative, the yearly cost would be
£15,000. The expense of the official departments could not reasonably
exceed £425,000. All revenue officers are paid out of the monies they
collect, and therefore are not in this estimation.
Taking one million and a half as a sufficient peace establishment for
all the honest purposes of government, there will remain a surplus of
upwards of six millions out of the present current expenses. How is this
surplus to be disposed of?
The first step would be to abolish the poor rates entirely, and in lieu
thereof to make a remission of taxes to the poor of double the amount of
the present poor rates--_viz._, four millions annually out of the
surplus taxes. This money could be distributed so as to provide £4
annually per head for the support of children of poor families, and to
provide also for the cost of education of over a million children; to
give annuities of £10 each for the aged poor over sixty, and of £6 each
for the poor over fifty; to give donations of £1 each on occasions of
births in poor families, and marriages of the poor; to make allowances
for funeral expenses of persons travelling for work, and dying at a
distance from their friends; and to furnish employment for the casual
poor of the metropolis, where modes of relief are necessary that are not
required in the country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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