Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The only fair way to tax citizens is based on how much money they can afford to give.
- In plain terms
- Taxes should be based on how much money you have.
- What can you take from it?
- Fair taxation requires adjusting burdens according to individual financial capacity.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes a tax system fair?
- Should everyone pay the same rate?
Another view
Some argue flat taxes are simpler and equally fair in other ways.
More from Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Favor comes because for a brief moment in the great space of human change and progress some general human purpose finds in him a satisfactory embodiment.
Permalink to quote #56 Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.
Permalink to quote #58 A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.
Permalink to quote #55
Related quotes
Unlike proportionality, progression provides no principle which tells us what the relative burden of different persons ought to be the argument based on the pr…
Friedrich HayekFriedrich Hayek quote #162 'I think we should take money from everyone,' I told her, 'regardless of their ability to pay. After all, this is America.'
Joe Bob BriggsJoe Bob Briggs quote #5 The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.
Andrew JacksonAndrew Jackson quote #7