“Every tax, however, is to the person who pays it a badge, not of slavery but of liberty.”

—  Adam Smith

Source: The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book V, Chapter II, Part II, p. 927.
Context: Every tax, however, is to the person who pays it a badge, not of slavery but of liberty. It denotes that he is a subject to government, indeed, but that, as he has some property, he cannot himself be the property of a master.

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Scottish moral philosopher and political economist 1723–1790

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