29 SEPTEMBER 1950, Page 3

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

OUR rulers are said to be contemplating the imposition of another capital levy. I never did understand economics, and now that they are married, not very happily; to political dogma I find it harder than ever to make sense of them. Capital, for instance, I realise to be a thing the possession of which by an individual is in some way discreditable and unjust, so that to confiscate part of it is perfectly comine it jaw. Savings, on the other hand, are quite different, the citizen who accumulates them being a splendid fellow and the funds he has " put by " axiomatically sacrosanct. But to my simple mind it appears that there must be a point, in mathematics if not in ideology, at which the worthy, frugal chap who goes on saving and saving becomes by virtue of the size of his hoard a beastly capitalist ; and it would be interesting to know what our rulers consider the relevant figure to be. .

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