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| A Leviathan in all but reality |
There is a Chinese Proverb which goes "If everyone swept the pavement in front of his house, the whole street would be clean". Recent reports of a British comedian evading taxation is an insult to the values and obligations which we profess to hold in a Democracy.
The heart of this argument goes back to the Lockean concept of Tacit Consent. Even if one does not vote or debate government policy and the role of the State in society, by living and working in a democracy one consents to upholding its foundations. The State's role in a Liberal Democracy is accepted as one of providing for negative and positive rights regardless of whether the government is red or blue.
In that the State's actions are designed to increase and maintain the health of the population, improve the military, strengthen the economy and infrastructure, and so forth. Without universal and progressive taxation it would be difficult to provide for these goals and ensure the next generation has equal if not greater opportunities to succeed and realise their potential.
By evading these responsibilities, regardless of intention or motive, the comedian, Jimmy Carr, and many like him, who tend to be high net-worth individuals, are committing an egregious act of immorality. At its simplest, the opportunity to evade taxation through offshore centres, like Jersey or the Cayman Islands, happens due to International legal arbitrage; without which these small economies would not be able to ensure their own economic success. Within the national regulatory systems in large advanced economies there are also a number of loopholes through which tax evasion occurs.
In that the State's actions are designed to increase and maintain the health of the population, improve the military, strengthen the economy and infrastructure, and so forth. Without universal and progressive taxation it would be difficult to provide for these goals and ensure the next generation has equal if not greater opportunities to succeed and realise their potential.
By evading these responsibilities, regardless of intention or motive, the comedian, Jimmy Carr, and many like him, who tend to be high net-worth individuals, are committing an egregious act of immorality. At its simplest, the opportunity to evade taxation through offshore centres, like Jersey or the Cayman Islands, happens due to International legal arbitrage; without which these small economies would not be able to ensure their own economic success. Within the national regulatory systems in large advanced economies there are also a number of loopholes through which tax evasion occurs.
In essence, maintaining the social and economic environment in which Britain, the U.S., Western Europe, Japan, and other large advanced economies are able to provide the highest living standards, opportunities, and resources per capita in our time, can only be achieved through universal and progressive taxation. A society which suffers from pervasive tax evasion would in the long term be unable to sustain economic growth. More so, universal taxation enables the State to ensure its own long term sustainability and progressive taxation encourages labour and social mobility; such that each generation's best and brightest are able to earn the most.
