At 07:51 26/06/2003 -0400, you wrote:
Communities are based on cross-subsidization. The strong help the weak. The rich help the poor. Wherever possible this is done without loss of dignity. A progressive tax system and the welfare state seemed to accomplish this--at least to some degree.
If you want to move away from cross-subsidization then you must accept the loss of community (at least in today's secular world.) Say hello to Clockwork Orange.
But you've put the cart before the horse here! It's because we have already lost community (to a very considerable extent) that people are not prepared to cross-subsidize any longer. There is no more overused, but meaningless, word in the politician's vocabulary. This is one of the reasons why an increasing proportion of the electorate don't vote. And they vote less at local elections than national ones.
There are temporary alliances during the working day among professionals(*). There are still pockets of genuine community in the villages round here, but these consist of old folk -- the youngsters have long left for the cities where they are immersed in anonymity. There are many new genuine communities in the northern towns and cities of England composed of immigrants, where the Hindus live in one concentrated area, Moslems in another, Sikhs in another, West Indians in another, etc but these will only last for one more generation. Their youngsters will also move out as they go to college and become westernised.
(* This, incidentally, is quite a strong reason to my mind why so many middle-class and professional people commute for hours a day to go to work in our large cities. It is only when they are at work that they have any experience of a genuine community.)
Keith Hudson
At 10:34 25/06/2003 -0400, you wrote: <<<< Keith, maybe we can apply some maths to reach a truly fair, and progressive tax system. >>>>
A "progressive" tax system? Surely, you're joking! What a progressive tax system does is to encourage tax evasion by the rich and to strip dignity from the poor. No sensible rich person in England pays more tax than, say, the average middle-class person; no employable poor person in England in receipt of government credits will take a job because, in practice, anything extra he earns will be taxed at 100%.
If you want a sensible tax system that everybody -- and I mean *everybody* -- doesn't mind paying (in principle), then you have to tap into the same instinct of status-flaunting that motivates consumer spending. In England, everybody tries to pay as little Income Tax as possible but the middle-class are proud of paying their Council Tax because this is based on the value of their house, and thus they get great pleasure in talking about it whenever possible. Similarly, Mormons are honest about paying tithes to their church and are not reticent in telling you how much (at least, this is what I have been told by some Mormon missionaries whom I invited in for a glass of water).
Keith Hudson Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England
Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
