Winston Churchill: Nation Prosperity Bucket
on Monday, July 11, 2011Winston Churchill Tax Quotation contributing to the argument over how to achieve economic recovery with a historic comment suggesting the conservative view. Winston Churchill said:
“We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle” — Winston Churchill
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Winston Churchill seems to be using a metaphor to argue that a government cannot tax its way to greater economic prosperity. The analogy compares national taxation to a man trying to lift himself off the ground by pulling up on the handle of a bucket he is standing in – an impossible feat of self-elevation.
Churchill’s view appears to be that while tax revenue funds public services, excessively high taxes do not generate true wealth or growth for a country, but rather act as a drag on the economy similar to how the man in the bucket cannot raise himself up solely through pulling on the handle.
The quote suggests Churchill believed nations must cultivate business and industry to create wealth, not attempt to tax citizens and companies into prosperity.
#NationalWinstonChurchillDay April 9 in 1963, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II, become an Honorary Citizen of the United States
Birthday: November 30, 1874 – Death: January 24, 1965