When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had one before.
Interpretation
The introduction of new taxes often leads to the continuation of existing ones, increasing the burden on taxpayers.
H. L. Mencken's quote highlights the tendency of political systems to expand taxation rather than simplify it. When a new tax is introduced, it rarely replaces an old tax; instead, it adds to the financial obligations of taxpayers, allowing politicians to extract more resources without reducing previous levies. This illustrates a broader critique of government fiscal policies and the behavior of politicians in managing public finances, often prioritizing revenue generation over taxpayer relief.
In practice
During a debate on fiscal policy, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for tax reform.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
There is an element of paranoia in this inclination to view any serious attempt at a compromised peace as somehow directed against Israel.
All of us can agree that we want government to work as well as possible, and we should all applaud efforts to improve it. But there is no escaping the divisive and essential questions: What is the purpose of the state, and whom does it serve?
The new social question is: democracy or the rule of the financial markets. We are currently witnessing the end of an era. The neoliberal ideology has failed worldwide. The U.S. movement Occupy Wall Street is a good example of this.
Of course the Republicans have long wanted to privatize Social Security and destroy it. But Social Security has been the most important and valuable social program in the history of the United States.
The Washington leadership has put aside non-proliferation programmes and devoted its energies and resources to driving the country to war by extraordinary deceit, then trying to manage the catastrophe it created in Iraq.
The misconception that aid falls straight into the hands of dictators largely stems from the Cold War era.
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