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 pro 
portion, 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.