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Daily Archives: January 10, 2012

Wise and Just Governments Don’t Soak the Rich <– James Madison


"They will equally respect the rights of property, and the property in rights"

A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species: where arbitrary taxes invade the domestic sanctuaries of the rich, and excessive taxes grind the faces of the poor; where the keenness and competitions of want are deemed an insufficient spur to labor, and taxes are again applied, by an unfeeling policy, as another spur; in violation of that sacred property, which Heaven, in decreeing man to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, kindly reserved to him, in the small repose that could be spared from the supply of his necessities.

~ James Madison, Property (1792)

 
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Posted by on January 10, 2012 in Politics

 

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