fly summarised as follows: (1) Both local and national taxation
should aim primarily at securing for the communal benefit all
'unearned' or 'social' increment of wealth. (2) Taxation should aim
deliberately at preventing the retention of large incomes and great
fortunes in private hands, recognising that the few cannot be rich
without making the many poor. (3) Taxation should be in proportion to
ability to pay and to protection and benefit conferred by the State.
(4) No taxation should be imposed which encroaches upon the
individual's means to satisfy his physical needs."[452]

"To the Socialist taxation is the chief means by which he may recover
from the propertied classes some portion of the plunder which their
economic strength and social position have enabled them to extract
from the workers; to him, national and municipal expenditure is the
spending for common purposes of an ever-increasing proportion of the
national income. The degree of civilisation which a State has reached
may almost be measured by the proportion of the national income which
is spent collectively instead of individually. To the Socialist the
best of Governments is that which spends the most. The only possible
policy is deliberately to tax the rich, especially those who live on
wealth which they do not earn; for thus, and thus only, can we reduce
the burthen upon the poor."[453]

The Fabian Society suggests the following reform of national taxation:
"In English politics successful ends must have moderate beginnings.
Such a beginning might be an income-tax of _2s. 6d._ in the pound.
Unearned incomes above _5,000l._ a year would pay _2s. 6d._ in the
pound, below _5,000l._ a year _1s. 8d._ in the pound. The estate duty
might be handled upon similar principles. Estates between _500,000l._
and _1,000,000l._ would be charged twelve and a half per cent, instead
of seven and a half, and estates exceeding _1,000,000l._ fifteen per
cent, instead of eight."[454] The Fabian Society does not disguise its
aim in proposing the foregoing: "These suggestions are doubtless
confiscatory, and that is why they should recommend themselves to a
Labour party. But even so, the confiscation is of a timorous and a
slow-footed sort. The average British millionaire dies worth about
_2,770,000l._, on which the death duty would be _415,500l._, leaving
the agreeable nest-egg of _2,254,500l._ to the heirs. Even if we
assume that the inheritance passes to one person only, so as