Herzog Wolfhammer
Sigma Special Tactics Group
1632
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Posted - 2012.06.24 08:03:00 -
[1] - Quote
Where it's always nice to help the poor, making it a matter of governmental policy is folly. Governments do not produce anything. It gets income through taxes, fees for various things, tariffs, and levies.
When a government wants to give someone money, we should ask: is everybody on board with this?
Truth is that this is seldom the case. But let's ask: how do we avoid taxes and such, and what happens to you when you go about the necessary means (smuggling in most cases) when you do?
For the rank and file out there, if they don't pay taxes, collectors come. Things can escalate into one person (government) pointing a gun at the other (taxpayer). So while everything is couched in the appearance of being voluntary - for the rank and file that means leaving everything behind and going to live with the Guristas or Serpentis, etc - the end result is armed robbery.
Now, when you have people on the dole - getting the handouts - do we deny them the right to vote too? Denial of the rights to vote in a democratic society such that the Federation is, is..... blasphemy (sorry to the Amarr but even without God, there is still worship of something, like the state, with equal zeal in many cases).
So when the people benefiting from armed robbery without the consequences of actually having committed a crime get to vote, what do you think will happen?
Now imagine that the people voting for more money in their pocket outnumber those who are paying the taxes.
What do you think will happen then?
Frankly, if we want to help the poor, the Sisters of Eve is always taking donations and are always in need of help. They are quite good at it, and are not affecting governments.
In the end, when people are being taxed too much, they become less charitable too. The incentive to earn more is also lost, and that means less tax revenue. From there the governments might have to devalue currency by creating more of it. Thankfully ISK is not affected by this and the universe uses ISK across all empires, meaning that all empires would have to have an issue with socialism costing too much and agree on this. This is likely the only thing protecting us from a devalued currency with all of the "guns and butter" policies of our empires that seek to buy votes (those that have voting anyway) and wage war at the same time.
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