The day after we filed to pay our income tax (direct taxes) and in reflection of the “across the board” tax increases (indirect taxes) that were pushed and past this last legislative session, it is good to reflect on why some business groups might have pushed for these widespread tax increases.
After I wrote yesterday’s post, I read a selection from From Out of Step: The Autobiography of an Individualist, by Frank Chodorov; The Devin-Adair Company, New York, 1962, pp. 216-239 entitled Taxation is Robbery. It is definitely worth reading, and I thought I would draw your attention to this piece in particular:
Tacit support for indirect taxation arises from another byproduct. Where a considerable outlay in taxes is a prerequisite for engaging in a business, large accumulations of capital have a distinct competitive advantage, and these capitalists could hardly be expected to advocate a lowering of the taxes. Any farmer can make whiskey, and many of them do; but the necessary investment in revenue stamps and various license fees makes the opening of a distillery and the organizing of distributive agencies a business only for large capital. Taxation has forced the individually-owned and congenial grog-shop to give way to the palatial bar under mortgage to the brewery or distillery. Likewise, the manufacture of cigarettes is concentrated in the hands of a few giant corporations by the help of our tax system; nearly three-quarters of the retail price of a package of cigarettes represents an outlay in taxes. It would be strange indeed if these interests were to voice opposition to such indirect taxes (which they never do) and the uninformed, inarticulate and unorganized consumer is forced to pay the higher price resulting from limited competition.
I know I’m on a big versus small kick that might seem to be getting old to some, but I think this theme deserves a lot more attention than the traditional partisan rhetoric. It is the shifting economic paradigm of our times.