On the recordJanuary 1, 1791
If any credit is given, it is to the disposition of the people to pay the tax, and not to the government, which lays it on.
Said by
Thomas Paine
Source
gutenberg.orgIf any credit is given, it is to the disposition of the people to pay the tax, and not to the government, which lays it on.
Paine argues in "Rights of Man" that the real credit in a nation's financial system rests with the people's willingness to pay taxes, not with the government itself.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
If, therefore, the good to be obtained be worthy of a passive, rational, and costless revolution, it would be bad policy to prefer waiting for a calamity that should force a violent one.
As to what are called national religions, we may, with as much propriety, talk of national Gods.
Discussion and the general will arbitrates the question, and to this, private opinion yields with a good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.