mamboni
12th April 2012, 08:47 AM
I invite you to read the last few sentences of the below article from The Lessons of History, by Will and Ariel Durant. It is about how the destruction of the Roman Empire through the taxation channel made people 'slaves,' in other words how serfdom emerged. You can also find an online version of the book, thanks to Google.
"Rome had its socialist interlude under Diocletian. Faced with increasing poverty and restlessness among the masses, and with the imminent danger of barbarian invasion*, he issued in A.D. 301 an edictum de pretiis, which denounced monopolists for keeping goods from the market to raise prices, and set maximum prices and wages for all important articles and services. Extensive public works were undertaken to put the unemployed to work**, and food was distributed gratis***, or at reduced prices, to the poor. The government – which already owned most mines, quarries, and salt deposits – brought nearly all major industries and guilds under detailed control. 'In every large town,' we are told, 'the state became a powerful employer, standing head and shoulders above the private industrialists, who were in any case crushed by taxation.' When businessmen predicted ruin, Diocletian explained that the barbarians were at the gate****, and that individual liberty had to be shelved until collective liberty could be made secure. The socialism of Diocletian was a war economy, made possible by fear of foreign attack. Other factors equal, internal liberty varies inversely with external danger.
"The task of controlling men in economic detail proved too much for Diocletian's expanding, expensive, and corrupt bureaucracy. To support this officialdom – the army, the courts, public works, and the dole – taxation rose to such heights that people lost the incentive to work or earn*****, and an erosive contest began between lawyers finding devices to evade taxes and lawyers formulating laws to prevent evasion. Thousands of Romans, to escape the tax gatherer, fled over the frontiers to seek refuge among the barbarians******. Seeking to check this elusive mobility and to facilitate regulation and taxation, the government issued decrees binding the peasant to his field and the worker to his shop until all their debts and taxes had been paid*******. In this and other ways medieval serfdom began."
The parallels between Diocletian and Obama vis-à-vis public policy, debt, punitive taxation, attacks on personal wealth and private property, bureaucratic abuse and corruption and others are striking.
*TSA airport security, total body scans, invasion of privacy, all to supposedly keep out terrorists
**Remember Obama’s Shovel-ready public works program?
***Food stamps, SNAP
****The eternal ‘war on terror,’ best excuse for government excess ever invented
*****Labor participation rate dropping precipitously as millions simply stop looking for work and the government no longer counts them so as to artificially suppress the unemployment rate.
******Americans are renouncing their citizenship and leaving the country in record numbers – this has never happened before.
*******Recently, a bill has been proposed in Congress authorizing the TSA to sieze the passport of and detain any American attempting to leave the country with gretaer than $50,000 in outstanding debt. Diocletian lives!
"Rome had its socialist interlude under Diocletian. Faced with increasing poverty and restlessness among the masses, and with the imminent danger of barbarian invasion*, he issued in A.D. 301 an edictum de pretiis, which denounced monopolists for keeping goods from the market to raise prices, and set maximum prices and wages for all important articles and services. Extensive public works were undertaken to put the unemployed to work**, and food was distributed gratis***, or at reduced prices, to the poor. The government – which already owned most mines, quarries, and salt deposits – brought nearly all major industries and guilds under detailed control. 'In every large town,' we are told, 'the state became a powerful employer, standing head and shoulders above the private industrialists, who were in any case crushed by taxation.' When businessmen predicted ruin, Diocletian explained that the barbarians were at the gate****, and that individual liberty had to be shelved until collective liberty could be made secure. The socialism of Diocletian was a war economy, made possible by fear of foreign attack. Other factors equal, internal liberty varies inversely with external danger.
"The task of controlling men in economic detail proved too much for Diocletian's expanding, expensive, and corrupt bureaucracy. To support this officialdom – the army, the courts, public works, and the dole – taxation rose to such heights that people lost the incentive to work or earn*****, and an erosive contest began between lawyers finding devices to evade taxes and lawyers formulating laws to prevent evasion. Thousands of Romans, to escape the tax gatherer, fled over the frontiers to seek refuge among the barbarians******. Seeking to check this elusive mobility and to facilitate regulation and taxation, the government issued decrees binding the peasant to his field and the worker to his shop until all their debts and taxes had been paid*******. In this and other ways medieval serfdom began."
The parallels between Diocletian and Obama vis-à-vis public policy, debt, punitive taxation, attacks on personal wealth and private property, bureaucratic abuse and corruption and others are striking.
*TSA airport security, total body scans, invasion of privacy, all to supposedly keep out terrorists
**Remember Obama’s Shovel-ready public works program?
***Food stamps, SNAP
****The eternal ‘war on terror,’ best excuse for government excess ever invented
*****Labor participation rate dropping precipitously as millions simply stop looking for work and the government no longer counts them so as to artificially suppress the unemployment rate.
******Americans are renouncing their citizenship and leaving the country in record numbers – this has never happened before.
*******Recently, a bill has been proposed in Congress authorizing the TSA to sieze the passport of and detain any American attempting to leave the country with gretaer than $50,000 in outstanding debt. Diocletian lives!