Modern Age - Fall 2015 - 39

CAN TAXES BE FAIR? SHOULD THEY BE?

once the roving bandits evolved into stable government, there
was no doubt that the government was an alien power, extracting surplus from the people. Taxes were not described as "fair" or
"unfair" but rather as "tolerable" or "oppressive." A "good king"
was someone who understood that arbitrary exactions and high
tax rates did not yield him as much revenue as more moderate
and predictable rates that allowed his subjects to prosper.
A perhaps more familiar story is found in 1 Samuel 8:5-18.
Samuel judged Israel, but when he was old and his sons were
corrupt, the people requested a king "like all the nations." Samuel
explained what kings are like:
He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his
chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before
his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands,
and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground,
and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and
instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to
be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he
will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive-yards,
even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he
will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give
to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men,
and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth
of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

Again, the picture is that of an outsider who takes whatever he
wants from his subjects. Fairness is not an issue.
The alien power did not always settle in the subject territory.
39



Modern Age - Fall 2015

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