PROPORTIONAL, PROGRESSIVE, AND DEGRESSIVE TAXATION. .1 system of proportional taxation is one in whieh the contribution from income or wealth remains a constant percentage, whatever the size of the latter may be. it is defended on the ground that it approximates the ideal of according to ability. Progressive taxa tion, in which the contribution increases rela tively to income or wealth, may be defended on the same ground, since one who possesses a large income is obviously more able to surrender a cer tain percentage of it than one who has a small income is to surrender an equal percentage. More often it is advocated as a measure of social equalization. Degressive taxation, in which the contribution diminishes relatively to income or wealth. has no valid defense; it exists only be cause of the imperfeetion of the taxing machin ery, which finds less difficulty in levying upon small aggregates of wealth than upon large.
An ideal system of taxation would he a single tax on incomes. Such a tax would have to take
account of the necessary expenditures of indi viduals, since these affect faculty; it would also take account of the character of income. whether funded or unfunded, since the former, being more certain, places its recipient in a better econom ic position than the latter. Income taxes, how ever. have proved practicable to only a limited extent. (See below.) A tax on all property would approximate the same end, since the value of property is closely dependent upon the income it yields. This tax was practicable enough when almost all property was tangible and incapable of concealment. It is the most unsatisfactory of systems when, as at present, a vast amount of property consists in intangible personality. For these reasons, a mul tiple system of taxation, direct and indirect, is necessary to provide satisfactory revenues and to approximate fairness in distribution.