THE ISSUE OF FEDERAL TAX REDUCTION DURING INFLATION

Abstract

articles of general consumption, such as that on electrical energy, and the taxes on the various utility services which are regarded as luxury in character passenger transportation, and communications services. The remainder of the luxury excises are poor substitutes for the income tax and will prove deflationary in their effects. The least objectionable of the excises, apart from the gasoline tax,26 are the sumptuary excises, since the distortion of consumer choice which they produce is regarded