The Washington times., 1935-01-31

WedlCn is 10 DS $S$$H
in cr eased by
merely printing Lewis Haney
bonds or notes.
Take turnover" for example.
They say turnover is not income,
and that transactions" are not
sales! But turnover is merely the
number Of times business mans
capital or stock goes into his an
nual sales. Take any given sum,
and the turnover" is just in pro-
portion to sales. If there are 10
turnover" instead of two, the
sales are five times as large.
You can't tax turnover. The
tax has to come out Of the sales
dollars. Turnover" means moth
ing aside from total national in.
come and the total Of retail
sales, and each is probably
not over 50 billion dollars.
This means that the Town
send tax must come either out
Of the merchants profit or out
Of the customers pocket. 1t
means that the Townsend tax
has to come out of the nations
retail bill-out Of the peoples
retail expenses or the retailers
earnings. There is nowhere else
for it to come from.
A business man can't make
money by turnover alone. If he
loses on each sale, the larger
his sales (the more "turnOverS"
he has), the larger is his total
loss!
The more "turnoverS," the more
sales, and the more taxes. If the
merchant pays the tax it reduces
his profit, and if it causes loss
on each transaction, the more
"turnovers," the more he loses.
II all the proposed billions do
not come out of tax paid by busi-
ness men or their customers,
where is the money to come from?
If "a billion dollars are to be given
by the Government, how will The
Government get the money?
To start the thing off for the
first month, 1t would be neceS-
sary either to borrow two billion
dollars, or to print greenbackS
for that amount. Then if the
old folks spend this, the pro-
posed 2 per cent tax on the re-
sIIlting transactions or sales for
the month would bring in only
40 million dollars.
The next month, two billion
dollars more would have to be
advanced by Government, so
that insofar as the old folks
spending is cOncerned), $780,.
100000 would then have to be
raised! Even if you figure the
tax on other peoples spending,
too, the Government would still
have to raise something like half
. billion.
All this means public debt and
Initiation.
They fall back on the War, and
say the Government borrowed
and spent billions then. So what?
Where is all that money now?
Where are the bank deposits "cre-
ated" in those wild days? Where
is the turnover"
The answer is seen in the pres
ent business proStration and un-
employment. Do we want to try
that game again?
They say that the Government
will save in reduced bills for char.
liable and penal institutions, pen
sionS, etc. That is very doubtful,
but suppose it were true. Don't
you see that it would mean re.
duced spending? If the Govern
ment were to cut it's expenditures
for charity, etc., as much as it in.
creased expenditures for the
Townsend old age army; there
would be no increase in money
circulation at all!
The long and short of it is
that
(1) No government can give
billions of money to any class
without (a) raising taxes (paid
by other classes, or (b) going
into debt, or (c) issuing "fiat"
paper money (greenbackS).
~ Any tax has to be paid by
the people, and is a burden on
somebody.
~ Turnover" depends on
sales.
# the Townsend plan is de-
signed to create purchasing power
and stimulate business by inflat-
ing the currency, why not give
$4,000 to everybody every week?
That question can't be honestly
answered. If the Government can
afford "a billion, it could afford
240 billion. If forced monthly
spending is good, weekly spending
would be better. If it is good to
give old folks money to spend, it
is better to give it to young folks,
too.
BULLOCK ASSETS UP
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