- 03 Aug 2013 15:46
#14282812
The solution to 1984 is 1973!
As much as I might wish it I can't see 100 years of encrusted bureaucratic thuggery disappear from Britain overnight so I consider the following a workable interim position suitable for the British context. In short the position will be a minarchist "nightwatchman" state where the role of the state is reduced to that of territorial defence only, which will be funded only by a land tax, a territorial defence fee. The main thing to elaborate on here is the replacement of the entire complicated and invasive tax regime with a simple land tax.
Land Tax
The advantages of a land tax are manifold especially in the British context where for centuries vast tracts of land are unavailable to the majority due to being held by aristocratic landowners whose ownership comes from extremely dubious methods.
- Simple, a land tax will be very simple and therefore inexpensive to administrate both for the payer and the collector.
- Land cannot be hidden or moved abroad so those liable to pay have no ability to evade taxation by moving wealth out of the country.
- It will create an incentive for those holding land to either use it productively or give up ownership. This will rectify in short order a very long term systemic problem in the UK of land hoarding created by the various enclosure acts over the centuries. This will also have the concurrent effect of increasing the supply of land in the land market which in turn reduce the market price of land and therefore in turn reduce the cost of living. It will also likely increase the amount of land returning to a wild or natural state, which will have obvious environmental benefits, since unowned land is naturally exempt from this tax since there is no owner to pay it.
- Logical, if the state's job is territorial defence then it makes sense that this activity is funded by land owners proportional the quantity of land they want to be defended.
The major benefits of this tax regime do not come from the tax itself but in all the messy plethora of taxes that it will replace. In the absence of Income tax, Sales Tax (VAT), Fuel Tax and all the rest the economy will recieve a major boost. Full employment, higher levels of saving and investment will be naturally result. Manufacturing may once again be viable in the UK which will do much to enhance export earnings. Living standards will improve dramatically.
Setting the tax rate
Naturally the exact amount of tax payable per acre of land can not be set entirely at the discretion of the recipients. Those that pay should have some ability to limit the rate. Thus the military should be obliged to publish a revised budget every four years the sum of which will be divided by the total acreage of owned land to arrive at the per acre tax rate. Those who are liable to pay the tax then can vote to approve or disapprove the budget and its consequent tax rate. In the event that the budget is not approved then the military must revise the budget until it is successfully approved. This will encourage the military not to inflate their budget to unreasonable amounts and to do sensible market research ahead of the budget revision to ensure they are not demanding more than people are willing to pay.
Your thoughts?
Land Tax
The advantages of a land tax are manifold especially in the British context where for centuries vast tracts of land are unavailable to the majority due to being held by aristocratic landowners whose ownership comes from extremely dubious methods.
- Simple, a land tax will be very simple and therefore inexpensive to administrate both for the payer and the collector.
- Land cannot be hidden or moved abroad so those liable to pay have no ability to evade taxation by moving wealth out of the country.
- It will create an incentive for those holding land to either use it productively or give up ownership. This will rectify in short order a very long term systemic problem in the UK of land hoarding created by the various enclosure acts over the centuries. This will also have the concurrent effect of increasing the supply of land in the land market which in turn reduce the market price of land and therefore in turn reduce the cost of living. It will also likely increase the amount of land returning to a wild or natural state, which will have obvious environmental benefits, since unowned land is naturally exempt from this tax since there is no owner to pay it.
- Logical, if the state's job is territorial defence then it makes sense that this activity is funded by land owners proportional the quantity of land they want to be defended.
The major benefits of this tax regime do not come from the tax itself but in all the messy plethora of taxes that it will replace. In the absence of Income tax, Sales Tax (VAT), Fuel Tax and all the rest the economy will recieve a major boost. Full employment, higher levels of saving and investment will be naturally result. Manufacturing may once again be viable in the UK which will do much to enhance export earnings. Living standards will improve dramatically.
Setting the tax rate
Naturally the exact amount of tax payable per acre of land can not be set entirely at the discretion of the recipients. Those that pay should have some ability to limit the rate. Thus the military should be obliged to publish a revised budget every four years the sum of which will be divided by the total acreage of owned land to arrive at the per acre tax rate. Those who are liable to pay the tax then can vote to approve or disapprove the budget and its consequent tax rate. In the event that the budget is not approved then the military must revise the budget until it is successfully approved. This will encourage the military not to inflate their budget to unreasonable amounts and to do sensible market research ahead of the budget revision to ensure they are not demanding more than people are willing to pay.
Your thoughts?
The solution to 1984 is 1973!