Fr. Jogues eagerly set out for North America to join his fellow Jesuits. Tortured and martyred in 1646, his courage and passion for the Gospel were exemplary.
Encouraging Work and Eliminating Poverty: Comparing American and Canadian Family Tax Benefits
By Matthew Pick, Harvard Law Class of 2022 Share:
Taxes are often used to promote a smorgasbord of social policies. Governments throughout history, for example, have used tax rules to promote their concept of the ideal family. Some rather draconian taxes have been enacted to promote population growth. For example, ancient Rome taxed unmarried men and women and married couples without children.1 More recently, Ceausescu’s Romania taxed families with fewer than five children, in addition to using an array of other authoritarian policies to promote population growth. The result in Romania led to many children being abandoned to orphanages.2 Modern western democracies have used softer tax incentives and have focused on promoting work and alleviating childhood poverty. Nonetheless, colliding social policy goals can beget policies that frustrate one another.