The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-07-08
Taxing the JOneSeS
An Editorial.

itoridL
ing cards year are worn out. Tax. 10 cents
a pack-3O cents
Mary doesn't buy expensive, taxable furs
and jewelry. And $40 worth Of cosmetics
year keeps this frugal housewives schoolgirl
complexion and johns love interests at home.
Tax, 10 per cent-s1.
Five dollars worth Of toilet soaps tooth
paste etc, at per cent, tax the household
25 cents
The radio, new parts and depreciation,
about IS year. tax 5 per cent-5o cents.
The three of them chew dollars worth
Of gum in a year, taxed at 2 per cent? cents.
They spend little on kilograms and long
distance calls-maybe 50 year taxed at per
cent-1O cents
NEITHER John nor Mary belongs to
club, so they pay no taxable dues. They
don't 90 to night clubs or cabarets where ad-
missions are taxed Is per cent. They don't
buy taxable firearms or cameras. They don't
play the stock market, where transfers of
stock are taxed. We can't estimate how much
the IdA W IA4C4A buIOCA Jill
Since the processing taxes which they pay
on the food they eat, on the clothes they wear,
go not into the general treasury but are segre-
gated for the specific purposes of substituting
and stabilizing the farm industry, we shall not
include them in this tax computation.
So let us stop here and add up the Fed
eraI taxes which we have brought out of hid
ing. They total-s4913.
We consider that figure triumph in I'M
reinstatement as it relates to unseen Federal
taxes paid by an American family living on
$1,000 year.
Until we did this little Job of arithmetic
- for John and Mary Jones, they probably
had no idea they were so taX-ridden. But they
did notice that $3.50 income tax Had the
whole amount, $6273, been visible, had it all
been income tax, they would have noticed it
whole lot more and would have been much
more interested as they read in the paper that
their government had been pouring about 20
million dollars a year down a ship subsidy
rathole.
The bulk of their taxes not being seen, the
Joneses weren't concerned enough to inquire
into the wisdom of the plan when they read
that the Senate had passed bill authorizing
billion-dollar bond issue to provide farm homes
for share-croppers. They were not worried
much about the public debt. They think of
Federal taxes as something paid mostly by the
rich.
It should be remembered that at least 95
per cent of the population belong to families
who live on incomes that average much less
than the income of the Joneses. Jim and Alice
Smith, who live across the street. have an in
come of only $4,000 and don't pay any income
tax at all. But like the Joneses, the Smiths
drive a small automobile go to movies and
consume almost as many taxable goods and
therefore pay hidden-tax bill nearly as large
as the Joneses
The Astorbilts, who live in mansion in
another part of town and have a 100000 in
come, pay some more in hidden taxes but,
proportionately not a whole lot. They eat no
more, though they do have more expensive
food. They smoke no more. They drive
bigger car and have imported whisky. But
as their consumer tax compares to their in
come the amount more that the Astorbilts pay
is infnitesimal.
To build up tax system based on ability to
pay, one that would be fair to the Joneses and
the Smiths and the Astorbilts, Congress, We
believe, should work toward elimination of all
hidden trade taxes and the substitution of in
come taxes reaching down into income brackets
much lower than those now taxed and gradu-
ating upward with higher rates on larger in
comes.
Then the Joneses and the Smiths as we'll
as the Astorbilts, will be interested in seeing
l,o,,, +I,ai~ ..o,oo,y &c eooof