THE TAXATION ON A. WAGE OF £1 A WEEK.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Householder " pays taxation to the amount of £81 on an income of 21,425,—i.e., a little over 5i per cent. (see
Spectator, March 5th). His neighbour, an artisan earning £1 a week, with the same family (wife, son, and daughter), a teetotaler, using per week half-a-pound of tea, four pounds of sugar, two ounces of tobacco, and writing one letter per week, will on these items alone pay nearly 9d. in taxation. Allow- ing a small fraction for such other dutiable expenses as railway travelling, cocoa, currants, &c., the artisan pays nearly 4 per cent. on his £1 a week, as against " House- holder's " 54 per cent. on £27 a week. It may be added that on nearly all the necessaries of life (rent, clothing, bread, meat, tea, &e.) the poorer man pays four or five times as much in proportion to his income—e.g., rent claims at least 20 per cent. of his income—and that in most cases his pay ceases whenever he obtains a holiday.—I am, Sir, &c.,
A. B. BROWNS.
[We agree that the working man is very heavily taxed, even if he is a teetotaler. But if he is a moderate consumer of whisky his contribution to the taxes goes up by leaps and bounds. It would be much better for the artisan if he were relieved of a good deal of the indirect taxation which be now pays, and had to pay an Income or Wages Tax instead. He
would then know what he paid. That, however, is, we fear, a counsel of perfection.—En. Spectator.]
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