UNEQUAL SACRIFICE
[To the Editor qf THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—It is surprising to read, in a responsible paper like The Spectator, the suggestion that the very rich are not to contribute a fair proportion of the new taxes.
The sacrifice is only unequal because the extra income tax falls more heavily on the rich than on those of moderate means.
Take the case of a man who earns say £1,200 a year. He gets various reliefs which would probably leave him with about 175. 6d. in the pound after paying income tax. The extra income tat of 6d. would only cost him one thirty-fifth of his nett income.
After paying surtax the very rich man only has about 7s. or 7s. 6d. in the pound left. The extra 6d. costs him about one fifteenth of his nett income. Thus he pays not only much more, but much more in proportion, than the man with a smaller income.
You may say that even so he has more than enough to pay for butteron his bread. If that argument were sound no tax would be fair which did not deprive the rich of all their wealth.
The-disadvantage of eliminating the rich is that we poor men will then have to pay all the taxes, and will in our turn be
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