The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it
difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in
getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of
the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best
advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon
house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in
this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very
unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to
the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more
than in that proportion.

	-- Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature And Causes of the Wealth of
			Nations (1776). 
		Book Five: Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth. 
		CHAPTER II: Of the Sources of the General or Public Revenue of
			the Society. 
		ARTICLE I: Taxes upon the Rent of House.
	http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3300/3300-h/3300-h.htm#link2HCH0031