Bootstrap wrote: ↑Mon May 03, 2021 10:26 am
To the extent that you really have private property in any country of the world, from ancient times on, yes. There have always been taxes and regulation and eminent domain.
In the United States, the government does not own the farms, the factories, the hospitals, or the airlines. It does tax them and regulate them. The distinction is important, this is why the United States is neither socialist nor Communist.
The "private property" laws in the USA came from the English Common Law, where the King owned all of the land, and could take it from anyone that disagreed with him. The land tax is rent or "tribute money" paid to the actual owner of the land. Because someone is habituated to paying tribute money from ancient times does not mean that no tribute money is being paid.
All that is necessary to create "socialism" is to raise the rent of the land to 100% of what the land can produce. Then everything you produce from the land, farm, factory, would go back to the sovereign who owns it, with you being considered chattel property, like a mule that pulls the plow.
I understand that if we add up all of the taxes paid to the government (property, sales, income, gasoline, excise, estate, tobacco, alcoholic beverage, ad valorem, perhaps an "ad nauseum" tax if they could - then your effective tax rate is 55% of everything that you earn.
So, you might say that we are only 55% socialized. In Sweden I believe there was a 95% tax rate, and everyone understood Sweden was a socialized country. So the USA is 45% non-Socialist at this point, with the other 55% being Socialist, or what some call Communist.
The difference between this taxation/socialist model and Christianity, is that Christian socialism is voluntary. You can give as you have been prospered, and give only to worthy causes.
Many years ago, there was a debate about the "War Tax", whether non-violent Christians should give their tax money to pay for the various wars the USA creates. The answer was, no we need to pay the war tax or we will go to jail, and we can't determine how much tax should be withheld.
But if our taxes were voluntary for each thing the government offered to us, imagine the freedom we would have. For example, if on your 1040 IRS form, there was a checkbox where you said that you were morally opposed to war and did not want to pay for the occupation of Iraq, then you could take $500 off your income tax. If you were opposed to the war in Afghanistan, take off another $500.
Everyone would check the box. Our wars would end.
With this freedom on the IRS 1040 form, I think pacifism would triumph over war, and freedom over socialism. No one wants to pay for war, and no one wants to pay for socialism.
Also, you could choose not to pay for Trump's border wall, or be "all in" on the wall. Now that is freedom.
The outcome of this "voluntary taxation" is that nearly everyone would avoid paying for things they do not need, and no one would choose to be socialized. And we would have a MUCH SMALLER GOVERNMENT, as people really do not want what is being "provided" to them at their own expense.
It is no coincidence that every socialist country has found the need to put barbed wire around their country to keep their people in (Iron Curtain, Bamboo Curtain, North Korea). Otherwise, the people would "vote with their feet" and run from socialism.
I found the uniform taxation of land in Tennessee you quoted to be interesting. Before the amendment to the Constitution to allow a graduated income tax, I believe there was a universal poll tax in the Constitution, which kept the tax low. Now there is a graduated income tax, and it is high for the middle class, but dodged by the upper class. Only the middle class pays taxes in the USA.
With a variable tax rate for land, the property assessor can raise the taxes on enemies, and lower it for his friends. It is like loopholes in the IRS code for certain people but not for all. The rich in our country hate a sales tax where they have to pay tax on everything they consume, but love the income tax where they can find exemptions and pay nothing at all. Tennessee has a sales tax, but no State income tax. I love it.
I understand Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have donated their stock to their own tax free foundations to avoid taxation. There is no "fair share" of taxes, except for the middle class.
Socialism and Fascism are really the same, the means of production is either owned by the State under Socialism or by the Corporations under Fascism. But the true owners of the means of producing wealth are still the same people, and not you. And as George Carlin said, "It is a private club, and you ain't in it!"
Socialism, Fascism, Capitalism - these are all words that describe the general outline of an economic system. But any of these systems can tax a person to take away their freedom to benefit an elite super class.
There are none so hopelessly enslaved as those who believe they are free. I think Christ gave us the answer to avoid materialism and find true freedom by remaining outside the system as much as possible. The Christian Community is the perfect answer to Socialism. Give Caesar back his coin, as his image is on it, and it is his property. Don't use it. I would like to avoid the fiat money with the Illuminati eyeball floating over the pyramid, if possible.
I think BitCoin or some other crypto will end a lot of socialism in the USA. If they can't tax us, they cannot enslave us.
Thank you for your interesting comments.
John
