Alex: Because it’s small enough not to impact one’s life style, yet just big enough for one to miss it. Contestant: Why did God pick 10%? Alex: Correct!
10% for a reason.
The metric of 10% – the tithe – has been around for a while. Intuitively, we all know it’s the way to go. It’s time to apply this standard to our secular governments. And for good reason. When the leviathan assumes an endless pool of resources from which it can draw, then, it has no incentive to prioritize.
Western societies have become divided between net producers and dependents. Above all are the Elites who require a relentless transfer of wealth from the producers to the dependents in order to maintain their power. Virtually every facet of society has an interest in it. This is no accident.
Moving to a 10% system of taxation would be painful. But without pain, there is no growth.
A 10% income tax does many things: first, it forces the producers to be more engaged in the political process by stripping the collectivization of services down to the essentials. Second, dependents become incentivized to move into the producer class.
Now, when I say 10%, I mean that as a comprehensive total, and not a dollar more.
To wit: 2% to the local municipality, 3% to the state, and 5% to the federal government. No property, sales, gasoline, liquor, cigarettes, cell phone, hotel room, airline, or value added taxes. And no deductions for individuals. Business pay on their net income, and without the infinite hidden taxes they currently pay, there will be plenty.
Yet Man’s Hubris knows no bounds.
Many will scoff at this. Call it unrealistic. I call it being forced to get one’s priorities in order. That’s a debate for another day, but the over-arching metric should be “what would I pay for without a gun to my head?” Sanitation, Police, and Fire usually come to mind. Education? That would prompt a secondary metric: “in what areas has government gotten every chance to get it right and has epically and relentlessly failed?”
But what about all the other “services” on which we’ve come to rely? To which I reply, what about taking agency for yourself and your family?
One would think that the failure of the Soviet Union would have put an end to the Statist ideology once and for all. In December 1991, the Hammer and Sickle lowered over the Kremlin for the last time.
This was no theoretical exercise, but the inevitable result of the unsustainable leviathan. It was the inevitable collapse on a macro scale of an organization attempting to do everything.
Hubris always brings Nemesis which lays us open to Chaos.
The Ancient Greeks called it Hubris – an unmerited pride and a rejection of God. Those who engage in Hubris are inevitably visited by Nemesis – retribution. This is coming. Our leaders think they can tax us without limit and in perpetuity with no thought to the inevitable march of Nemesis – Hubris exemplified. Take care of Hubris lest Nemesis arrives to strip us naked and lay us bare to the horrors of Chaos – the polar opposite of God.
Selah.
Great article. I would however reverse the amount sent to the different levels of Government. The Founding Fathers knew that local government would be more responsive because they were closer to the electorate and if we simply look at Article I Section 8 of the US Constitution there are few true responsibilities of the Federal Government. The vast majority of Federal expenditures should be for Defense not SS and Medicare/Medicade.