1797 AgrarianJustice

Subject Headings: Estate Tax.

Notes

(Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Justice Retrieved:2015-3-1.
- Agrarian Justice is the title of a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine and published in 1797, which proposed that those who possess cultivated land owe the community a ground rent, ^[1] and that this justifies an estate tax to fund universal old-age and disability pensions, as well as a fixed sum to be paid to all citizens on reaching maturity. It was written in the winter of 1795–96, but remained unpublished for a year, Paine being undecided whether or not it would be best to wait until the end of the ongoing war with France before publishing. However, having read a sermon by Richard Watson, the Bishop of Llandaff, which discussed the "Wisdom … of God, in having made both Rich and Poor", he felt the need to publish, under the argument that "rich" and "poor" were arbitrary divisions, not divinely created ones. ^[2]

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