Show REDUCE DON'T SHIFT! The suggestion that is frequently advanced for reducing the growing tax burden is to "shift the load" from one class of taxpayers to another. No relief would be thus secured. Relieving the farmer or the workman or the average citizen of tax payments and adding the amount to industries or those having large incomes would simply mean that the money to raise these tax payments would be shifted back to the individual through increased cost of everything he purchased pur-chased thus shoving the cost of living up another notch. The program of taxing invested or accumulated capital to the point of confiscation will in a short time reduce this source of taxable wealth to the point where it can no longer pay the taxes required. Then the burden of taxation falls back automatically on the small taxpayer. Shifting the load will only aggravate the situation. The one remedy is to bring about a reduction in taxation demands and increase in-crease efficiency in governmental management and expenditure of public funds. |