Charles Kettering: Can’t Tax Contemplation
on Saturday, April 9, 2016Charles Kettering Money Quote saying The government has not found a way to tax the output of our brains (the quality of that thought would be disputed as to tax rate). Charles Kettering said:
“Thinking is one thing no one has ever been able to tax” — Charles Kettering
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In this quote, Charles Kettering is making the point that human thought and ideas cannot be taxed in the same way that income, property, sales and other assets are taxed. While governments may tax the profits or revenues generated by ideas through corporate taxes and individual income taxes, Kettering is suggesting they cannot directly tax the thinking process itself that leads to innovation and new concepts.
His view seems to be that thinking and creativity are freely available resources for anyone to utilize without restriction or cost. Kettering appears to be acknowledging thinking as a kind of untapped wealth that is beyond the reach of taxation authorities since it involves intangible mental work rather than physical goods and money.
The quote conveys Kettering’s perspective that ideas as a driver of economic and social progress remain an untaxed wellspring available to all.