ABSTRACT
In most countries there have been more people with relatively low incomes than with relatively high ones. This has meant that the majority of voters have benefited from high government spending on social services, since the taxes needed to pay for it have apparently come only from the better-off. Inseparable from the subject of increased government spending is the subject of taxation, and this is a logical place to start, since in Britain and in other countries tax revenues have risen at about the same rate as government spending. In the nineteenth century, growth in revenue had been achieved painlessly by the increase in national income, which enhanced the yield from a given level of taxation. A policy of modest encouragement of industry in rural areas might have better served both rural communities and the environment. Because of these complexities, environmental policy has consistently shied away from the price mechanism.
