At 21:12 05/07/2011, Pete wrote:
On Sat, 2 Jul 2011, Keith Hudson wrote:
> How can Western governments -- with few exceptions -- possibly pay
> off their growing government debts from taxation? They'll only be
> able to do so by means of substantial assets sales.
Well, no. As the post here last week pointed out "Americans have
a loopy attitude towards taxation", or words to that effect. Sorry
I don't have it archived, but the article continued that if
americans taxed at the rate Canada does, they would have no
deficit/debt problem.
That's as may be. (I've also read what was probably the same article.
It was just a flat assertion. It contained no figures to back it up.)
But can you imagine for one minute that Americans will put up with
significantly more taxation? (By 'significant' I mean at a rate that
will start to repay government debt.)
That applies to Greece, and the other
european problem countries as well.
It would much more easily apply to Greece. Tax evasion by their rich,
upper-middle and professional classes is on a massive scale (and more
recently they are increasingly sending their wealth abroad). In
theory Greece could turn itself around almost overnight. In practice,
they've been unable to make the slightest dent in their government
debt in the past two years since their crisis started developing
seriously, nor is it likely that they'll ever do so. And, to a
greater or lesser extent according to their culture, this applies to
almost all the advanced countries -- starting with Japan (at 200%
debt to GDP).
Insane debt levels are pretty
much directly the result of the kleptocracy absconding with
the political system to enshrine their exemption from contributing
their share to the maintenance of society.
True enough, but it's not just one-way motivation by the kleptocrats.
Increasingly in recent decades they're met more than halfway by
politicians and senior civil servants.
If they keep it up,
they're eventually going to end their days viewing the world
from the top of pikes. As things get wonkier and wonkier, the
potential for the final stupid act of selfishness which wakes
the sad abused mob of the disenfanchised to their true situation
increases toward certainty. It may yet be decades away, though, so
as usual the kleptocrats figure they can keep the shell game going
til they're safely dead, and posterity be (truly, literally,
inescapably) damned.
I doubt it will come to heads on pikes. Since 1789 that's gone out of
fashion. Much more likely is what usually happens in history -- a
crumbling downwards of governances which are no longer efficient
(with or without another dramatic credit-crunch).
Keith
-Pete
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/07/
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