Calvin Coolidge speech on taxes, liberty and government economy: transcript

Key points

• Government costs are assessed on all the people, including farmers, manufacturers, professionals, clerks and wage earners, the last indirectly through higher prices.
• He wants Americans to work less for the government and more for themselves, which he calls the chief meaning of freedom.
• He says economy in government raises property values and wages and is one of the greatest favors to the American people.

Chapters

1. 0:14Who bears the costs of government
2. 0:59The scale of government expenses
3. 1:35Cutting expense and the meaning of freedom
4. 2:38Taxes as a burden on every household
5. 3:08Economy in government as a benefit to all

Full transcript

0:14The country needs every ounce of its energy to restore itself. The costs of government are all assessed upon the people. This means that the farmer is doomed to provide a certain amount of money out of the sale of his produce, no matter how low the price to pay his taxes. The manufacturer, the professional man, the clerk must do the same from their income. The wage earner, often at a higher rate when compared with his earnings, makes his contribution, perhaps not directly, but indirectly, in the advanced cost of everything he buys.

0:59The expenses of the government reach everybody. Taxes take from everyone a part of his earnings and force everyone to work for a certain part of his time for the government. When we come to realize that the yearly expenses of the governments of this country is the stupendous sum of about $7,500,000,000, we get $700,000,000, is needed by the national government and the remainder by local governments.

1:35Such a sum is difficult to comprehend. It represents all the pay of 5 million wage earners receiving $5 a day working 300 days in the year. If the government should add $100 million of expense, it would represent four days more work of these wage earners. These are some of the reasons why I want to cut down public expense. I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom. Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty.

2:38These results are not fanciful. They are not imaginary. They are grimly actual and real, reaching into every household in the land. They take from each home annually an average of over $300, and taxes must be paid. They are not a voluntary contribution to be met out of surplus earnings. They are a stern necessity.

3:08They come first. It is only out of what is left after they are paid that the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter can be provided and the comforts of home secured are the yearnings of the soul for a broader and more abundant life gratified. When the government affects a new economy, it grants everybody a life pension with which to raise the standard of existence.

3:39It increases the value of everybody's property and raises the scale of everybody's wages. One of the greatest favors that can be bestowed upon the American people is economy in government. Amen.

Source and licence

Recording: File:Speech on Taxes, Liberty, and the Philosophy of Government (1924), by Calvin Coolidge.ogv by Calvin Coolidge (1924-08-11), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.