File spoon-archives/heidegger.archive/heidegger_2003/heidegger.0311, message 439


From: "John Foster" <borealis-AT-mercuryspeed.com>
Subject: Re: Liberal vs. social democracy - Gestell/Gewinnst
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2003 21:30:23 -0800



> Politicians become entrenched and begin to see different groups
> and classes of citizens as standing reserves for tax revenue, ready on
call.
> The only difference is that we can vote them out (at least in a
democracy),
> and even that is possible only once in a while.
>
> Blameworthy, oui?
>
> Anthony Crifasi

Not entirely true. Many corporations do not pay taxes, and many individuals
do not pay taxes, particularly those making less than a certain amount.
There are many tax shelters.

The notion of 'standing reserve' refers to stocks within nature: timber,
water, fish, metals, etc. The 'tap' analogy also refers to 'harnessed' and
'mobilized' forms of natural resources already within the reserve. Some
restrictions apply: concepts such as 'sustained yield', 'soil loss
calculations', 'depletion', and 'social objectivess' which taken together
'conserve' yields, and in some cases 'regenerate' and 'renew' natural
resources.

There are some jurisdictions were income taxes are nil, or negligible. But
to compensate for the loss in revenues to a state, there are other froms of
revenue generation: royalties for example. Saudi Arabia has approximately an
active labour force representing something like 25% of the total available
work force; the rest are on welfare. Education is free. This is due to the
revenues generated from oil royalties, and this year these are estimated to
be in the order of $87 billion USD.

In the US income taxes are relatively low, but municipal taxes are
relatively high. There has been a lot of 'downloading' of taxes to
municipalities in the US. I think Idaho has no income taxes, but it has very
high municipal taxes. In Canada our federal taxes have to pay for much many
more services than is customary for US citizens, but that has led to
efficiencies of scale. For instance our Royal Canadian Mounted Police is
funded by federal income taxes for the most part. In some cases police are
funded  by municipal taxes.

chao

john foster



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