When Oliver Wendell Holmes said 'taxation is the price of civilization' during a period when the income tax was 1%, the scale of acceptable taxation has since grown enormously, raising questions about how much redistribution modern democracies can sustain.

factualpending

Speaker

Fared Zakaria

Evidence Quote

when Oliver Wendel Holmes said that the income tax was 1%. So we've come a long way.

Source

Navigating Our Revolutionary Age: A Conversation with Fareed Zakaria and Eric SchmidtColumbia SIPA
Created: 8/12/2026, 10:34:37 PM

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