Chapter  VIII

JUSTICE  OF  THE  SINGLE  TAX
T O  GO  to  the  foundation  of  the  whole  matter  of
taxation,  we  contend  that  the  social  disorder
and  derangement  complained  of  to-day  is  mainly  due
to  an  unnatural  and  unequal  distribution  of  wealth.
The  solution  of  the  problem  of  taxation  will  solve  the
problem  of  the  distribution  of  wealth.  Wealth  is
produced  in  proportion  to  the  skill  and  the  industry
of  the  hands  and  brains  of  all  the  world’s  workers.
The  annual  division  of  this  wealth  among  these  workers,
before  taking  taxes  into  account,  is  in  proportion  to
ability  and  in  proportion  to  special  privilege,  chiefly
the  private  appropriation  of  ground  rent.  After  this
grossly  unequal  annual  division  has  been  made,  comes
an  unequal  and  unjust  taxation  to  aggravate  still
further  these  inequalities.  By  the  process  of  taxation,
Mr.  Shearman  estimates,  the  taxable  savings  of  the
very  rich  shrink  4  per  cent  while  those  of  the  very  poor
shrink  78  per  cent.*  Under  the  single  tax  the  savings
of  both  rich  and  poor  would  shrink  in  the  same  proportion, ­
  that  is,  about  50  per  cent.  Such  inequalities
tend  to  increase  rather  than  decrease  with  time.
We  say  that  the  division  under  the  present  system
(unequal  by  more  than  a  hundredfold)  of  the  annual
taxable  savings  (before  taxation)  is  regulated  in  two
ways,  and  in  only  two  ways  —  by  ability  and  by
*  See  Natural  Taxation  by  Thomas  G.  Shearman  (Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.),
pp.  35  to  37.