Money, Banking and Finance 03
We revisit an insightful observation of J. S. Mill : Take, again, such a familiar case as that of a good system of taxation and finance. This would generally be classed as belonging to the province of Order. Yet what can be more conducive to Progress? A financial system which promotes the one, conduces, by the very same excellences, to the other. Economy, for example, equally preserves the existing stock of national wealth, and favors the creation of more. –Words on a good taxation system to follow- ( Considerations on Representative Government , 1861, Ch. II) Roughly saying, incidentally, Order is to stability of the systems of taxation and finance what Progress is to growth of the economy . Several pages later, Mill additionally clarifies that Order and Progress are of “a difference merely in degree” as opposed to “these two functions of a government” (“upon men” vs “upon things”) being different in kind. ...