Closing Ranks Against The Barbarii
0 Comments Posted by Alex Guerrero on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at 11:08 PM.
Essex, UK
Your topic, if I understood it correctly, though, sounds interesting, yet tricky. Given the special and close relationship between government and financial elite, how can there be not an enormous amount of control on the latter's part? And how can any government effectively act upon this?
Washington, DC
I remember a brilliant book by Lieberman (2003), comparing Brazil and South Africa. The question was, more or less, why do we observe such different patterns in taxation in two so similar countries (development, racial issues)? The author is especially intrigued by the presence of a strong income tax in South Africa. Supposedly, the white high class in South Africa would have been fighting that kind of pro-redistributive tax from the very beginning, as the wealthy did forever in the unequal Brazil. The guy went back to the past to analyze the circumstances in which the income tax emerged in South Africa (basically it was a "tax to the white citizens" to finance the apartheid system!!!). The wealthy-white conceded to pay it in a voluntary and systematic manner because, basically, they needed a strong state protecting the Apartheid system. So, when Mandela & cia brought democracy to South Africa, early in the 1990s, a strong and capable tax administration was at work, and the fiscal laws were in effect, and the taxpayers were registered and paying their due taxes.
Wars and deep economic crises generated special circumstances in which people is willing to accept and to pay income taxes to avoid the disaster. This was the case in the USA and many European countries. But still, these punctual explanations shall be fitted in a general framework in which people react to different circumstances and calculus (transfers-taxes, etc).
Essex, UK
Isn't it amazing to what extent people are willing to make sacrifices if only the constructed common cause appears to be strong enough? In the case of my beloved yet troubled birthplace (South Africa) it does not come as a big surprise that the white 'racial' community was willing to chip in to keep the other groups in their place which was a tremendously expensive endeavor.
Over the past years I have been watching the 'Western Civilization' close ranks against the contemporary Barbarians or terrorists in a futile attempt to buy a heightened sense of security at the price of civil liberties - a rather dear price, if you ask me. People never cease to puzzle me.
Your topic, if I understood it correctly, though, sounds interesting, yet tricky. Given the special and close relationship between government and financial elite, how can there be not an enormous amount of control on the latter's part? And how can any government effectively act upon this?
Washington, DC
I remember a brilliant book by Lieberman (2003), comparing Brazil and South Africa. The question was, more or less, why do we observe such different patterns in taxation in two so similar countries (development, racial issues)? The author is especially intrigued by the presence of a strong income tax in South Africa. Supposedly, the white high class in South Africa would have been fighting that kind of pro-redistributive tax from the very beginning, as the wealthy did forever in the unequal Brazil. The guy went back to the past to analyze the circumstances in which the income tax emerged in South Africa (basically it was a "tax to the white citizens" to finance the apartheid system!!!). The wealthy-white conceded to pay it in a voluntary and systematic manner because, basically, they needed a strong state protecting the Apartheid system. So, when Mandela & cia brought democracy to South Africa, early in the 1990s, a strong and capable tax administration was at work, and the fiscal laws were in effect, and the taxpayers were registered and paying their due taxes.
Wars and deep economic crises generated special circumstances in which people is willing to accept and to pay income taxes to avoid the disaster. This was the case in the USA and many European countries. But still, these punctual explanations shall be fitted in a general framework in which people react to different circumstances and calculus (transfers-taxes, etc).
Essex, UK
Isn't it amazing to what extent people are willing to make sacrifices if only the constructed common cause appears to be strong enough? In the case of my beloved yet troubled birthplace (South Africa) it does not come as a big surprise that the white 'racial' community was willing to chip in to keep the other groups in their place which was a tremendously expensive endeavor.
Over the past years I have been watching the 'Western Civilization' close ranks against the contemporary Barbarians or terrorists in a futile attempt to buy a heightened sense of security at the price of civil liberties - a rather dear price, if you ask me. People never cease to puzzle me.
Labels: ciencia política, EEUU, England
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