GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE: TAXATION 277

incomes increase, there is a corresponding expenditure, on a
larger scale, needed for the maintenance of efficiency, and
the amount of such expenditure grows as revenue grows, in
general, reaching, perhaps, a maximum, but this maximum
will be likely to be far in excess of the minimum.
May not the claim be made for a deduction of such a
varying amount, to provide for necessaries, before taking
income as the measure of tax-bearing power for all grades
of income? If the claim be admitted, then the equitable
share of taxation falling on any tax-payer will be proportioned
 to the remainder of his income after the deduction,
from its total amount, of the allowance for maintenance
proper to an income of that magnitude.
The admission of the propriety of proportioning taxation
to something less than the full income practically leads to a
claim that taxation may properly be, not proportional, but
progressive, for the method of deduction here considered,
though given the name of degressive taxation, may be
adapted to produce just such results as may be obtained by
making taxation bear a constantly greater proportion to
revenue as the amount of revenue increases. To secure this
by the degressive method, it is only necessary that the
deduction allowed should represent a smaller percentage for
large than for small incomes.
The general ground of the claim for progressive taxation
is found in the belief that the sacrifice of the same percentage
 of incomes of all sizes involves a larger sacrifice for
possessors of small incomes than for those whose incomes
are large. The degree in which the sacrifices differ is,
however, not easy to determine, and proposals for progressive
 rates of taxation are necessarily lacking in definiteness,
so long as some basis for the rate and limits of progression
is not provided. The form of application of the progressive
principle above sketched offers more security for the recognition
 of reasonable limits, than the simple progression of
rates of tax as incomes increase by stipulated stages. The
reduction of the degree of arbitrariness in the application of
the principle removes an obstacle from the consideration of
the principle on its merits.