Malcolm, you are one who is willing to share your wealth for the good of the community that you live. Most developed societies get that way because they are willing to share their wealth like you do.
I have been wondering what Mq's world would be. He wants and dreams of a world where 90-95% of the population would be endless supply of low labor peons. No need to share the wealth by those 10% who will eventually accumulate wealth. That's his ideal world and community where 10% would live in luxurious enclaved neighborhood with own parks and schools, and the rest outside the the enclaves live in slums. He loves those types of communities that now exist in Rio, Jakarta, Manila, Lahore, Karachi, Bombay, Mexico City, etc. Those are great cities in comparison to the neighboring smaller cities and villages that surround them.
Since Mq already made his modest wealth, maybe it is his cries to make himself feel like a big fatcat of the neighborhood and want everyone else in his neighborhood to stay down and poor or become poored.
I know because I have several friends and relatives who live in those countries where they only need to contribute 10% to 15% of their "cooked" annual earnings for the society. Living conditions of societies with 10%-15% tax are well documented, proven over the last 5 decades.
One only needs to count the number of public projects in these countries and the extent and breadth of the improvements. Compare that to public funded projects in the more developed countries with high tax rates. Why don't we see mass migration of people from high tax rate societies to the low tax rate societies?
In the past 10 years or so, I met and spoke with several county roads department superintendents of smaller communities in midwest US. Most of them are strapped for fundings and have difficulty maintaining their roads. Many have converted asphalt paved roads to gravel roads to save maintenance cost. I happen to agree that those low traffic roads should be gravel roads. One big laugh was when the wealthy retirees from east coast moved to the neighborhood for "country living" atmosphere and soon they asked and demanded for asphalt paved roads and street lights. The county superintendents had to remind them that country living is not the same as lighted and paved roads of city living.
There are other improvement projects such as sewer systems and treated (drinking) water for both old, new, and growing communities. They have no resources of their own, but able to get Federal subsidies or low interest loans that would be paid back over 50 years with cheaper dollars. Those projects are not money making propositions, or otherwise banks would jump on the opportunity to finance it. Neither would the State governments themselves be willing to sponsor such local community projects. Under Mq's world, these small communities will have no chance or have very difficult time to make improvement.
Taking a few more steps forward on Mq's ideal regression formula for developed societies. When sharing the wealth stops, many communities will experience greater budget crunch. Small communities have no chance to progress or make improvements. They would have to increase local tax revenues (yeah!, right! wonder how much they can raise) as available Federal funds would continue to dwindle. Or the Feds can just issue more IOU bonds and bills, triple the budget deficits and let the financial/currency system become argentinized or mexicanized to second or third world level. If Federal government is somewhat fiscally responsible, then there would be no grants or funds available for small communities. The resulting impact on local communities would be budget cuts, pay cuts for everybody, less manpower at public works departments, reduced funding for maintenance of parks, less budget for the schools, and less of everything else. Everything will less, including less pay (salaries). So it will progress toward Mq's world of 90% of population exist to provide perpetual low labor peons for the 10% wealthy living in their own enclaves, or scattered mansions in slum neighborhoods with open sewer systems and dirt roads once they exit their concrete driveway. |
