Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 45

CAN TAXES BE FAIR? SHOULD THEY BE?

to which all manner of other kinds of local taxes are to be added,
would indeed be unendurable if enforced to the hilt."4
The U.S. adopted an income tax to finance the Civil War in
1863. The rate was 3 percent on income exceeding $600, with a
5 percent rate above $10,000. Soon, the 5 percent rate was raised
to 10 percent. The tax expired in 1872, when the revenue was no
longer needed (Seligman, 437). Still, pressure was building for a
permanent income tax. Enormous accumulations of wealth during the rapid growth of the post-Civil War boom stirred the ire
of reformers. Moreover, the growth of the free-trade movement
created a problem. If the tariffs that had traditionally supported
the government, and aided northern manufacturers, were to be
reduced, some substitute tax would be necessary.5 Not least, the
Progressive movement, with its enthusiasm for direct government action and control of individual behavior, contributed to
the pressure.
An income tax was passed in 1894 but declared unconstitutional. When the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified in 1913, that
obstacle was removed and the income tax soon followed, because
"wealth is escaping its due share of taxation" (Seligman, 675). The
rates were graduated, with a tax of 1 percent of the first taxable
$20,000 and then increasing by 1 percent steps, to 7 percent over
$500,000 (equivalent to $11.7 million today). When Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes Jr. opined in 1904 (275 U.S. 87, 100) that "taxes
are what we pay for a civilized society," he was living in a world
of 1 percent tax rates. Is a 40 percent rate forty times as civilized?
The progressive rates of the new law were immediately challenged in court as a denial of "equality," but the Supreme Court
allowed the law to stand. This was a significant change, because
legal theory and popular opinion had long supported the idea
45



Modern Age - Fall 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Fall 2015

Table of Contents
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - Table of Contents
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - Cover2
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 1
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 2
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 3
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 4
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 5
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 6
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 7
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 8
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 9
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 10
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 11
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 12
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 13
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 14
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 15
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 16
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 17
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 18
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 19
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 20
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 21
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 22
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 23
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 24
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 25
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 26
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 27
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 28
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 29
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 30
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 31
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 32
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 33
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 34
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 35
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 36
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 37
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 38
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 39
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 40
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 41
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 42
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 43
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 44
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 45
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 46
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 47
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 48
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 49
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 50
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 51
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 52
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 53
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 54
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 55
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 56
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 57
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 58
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 59
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 60
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 61
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 62
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 63
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 64
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 65
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 66
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 67
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 68
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 69
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 70
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 71
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 72
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 73
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 74
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 75
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 76
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 77
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 78
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 79
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 80
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 81
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 82
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 83
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 84
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 85
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 86
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 87
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 88
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 89
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 90
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 91
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 92
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 93
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 94
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 95
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 96
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 97
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 98
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 99
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 100
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 101
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 102
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 103
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 104
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 105
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 106
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 107
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 108
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 109
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 110
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 111
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 112
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 113
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 114
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 115
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 116
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 117
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 118
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 119
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 120
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 121
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 122
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 123
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 124
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 125
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 126
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 127
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 128
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 129
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 130
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 131
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 132
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 133
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 134
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 135
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 136
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 137
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 138
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 139
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 140
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 141
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 142
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 143
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 144
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 145
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 146
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 147
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 148
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 149
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 150
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 151
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 152
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 153
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 154
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 155
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 156
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - Cover3
Modern Age - Fall 2015 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2018winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2017winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2016winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2015fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2014fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/isi/modernage_2014summer
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com