Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] MONDAY, JUNE 23, 1930. EXCESSIVE TAXATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 23 June 1930, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] MONDAY, JUNE 23, 1930. EXCESSIVE TAXATION.

A recognition of economic truths is embodied in a report of a subcommittee of the British General Federation of Trade Unions, dealing with the effect of taxes upon prices. In view of the need for all available capital-to be directed to the reconstruction of British industry, the comment in the report that excessive taxation has psychological consequences and weakens the will to save is particularly apt. The sub-committee regards “the conclusion that present stocks of reproductive capital are insufficient for national needs, and that taxation is too high, appears inescapable; as is also the further conclusion that all taxation, in varying, but certain degrees, raises the costs of production and selling prices, and by limiting the number of purchasers, increases unemployment, especially in those trades which manufacture for export.” As to the source from which expenditure on social services is derived, the report states that “it is foolish to expect that the social improvements for many millions can continuously be paid for by exactions from the wealth of a few thousands. However desirable it may be to secure fairer distributions of wealth, it is fatalto national prosperity to eat up that capital, which is necessary to finance present and future production.” It proceeds to condemn those who would endeavour to mislead the workman into thinking that “all nis insurances, pensions. housing and education expenditures can be extracted from capital without endangering his

industrial existence. ' . . , The fact is that these things have to be earned by the cotton operative, the wool worker, the engineer, the shipwright, and even the agricultural labourer. It is the industry of these and others similarly engaged which produce that wealth out of which the costs of social improvements are met.” The concluding passage of the report emphasises the importance of “the workers of Britain, realising where the burden of all taxation ultimately falls, and to what extent it prevents the accumulation of that capital which is necessary to maintain and expand the industry by which they live.”