The happiest taxes on earth

I have, for quite some time now, considered that it's not the political and economical system that matter for the happiness of a people, it's more the level of accountability that they feel is owed to them. If a people of a country pressure their governments and make them actually do what they are contracted to (it's a social contract, regardless of economic system), then the exact details are secondary, as if the system is at an equilibrium point, there are many stable and viable ways to run a country. There is more than one way to peel a banana so to speak.

I think this escapes a lot of people, because it escaped me most of my life: It's not the how, it's the who and the why that make the difference. There have been corrupt governments both on the left and the right. I think the reason they are corrupt is not the system morphology, it's ponerology, the influence of psychopaths on the overall social systems. And psychopaths are everywhere. It's not the evil in the system, systems are like tools, neutral, it's the hands operating them.

[edit on 16-5-2009 by Mindmelding]

reply to post by jkm1864


Isn't it amazing how some conservatives when confronted with something that they think that they don't like or understand they resort to the old liberal blah blah blah.

Like it or not a melding of socialism/capitalism and democracy works for these nations.

reply to post by greeneyedleo


I think you bring up an excellent point. It appears to me that the governments in which this or similar taxation systems work...... they are all smaller governments & smaller nations.

I think of our pay-as-you-go duties system here in the Cayman Islands, and imagine that working (or not) in the U.S. The U.S. are too big, too much government, too many layers. Besides, the U.S. would loose that extremely powerful behavioral modifier -- the IRS. I think the IRS has been used as a lever or flame to the feet of various individuals to make them "behave". Would be a pissoire to the government to waste such an inventive tool. For example, if a person is so unfortunate as to have to appear in IRS FEDERAL court....... well, basically, they're screwed. There is no higher authority to appeal to.

I used to be on contract to the Federal goverment in various roles. At one point, I had to bid contracts. Those that could wade through the 4" thick documents and figure out what it really meant, were usually awarded the contract, as they could then bid on the "guts" of the document. Especially indefinate quantity contracts...... there are "gimmes" in there, as well as "awwcraps". One has to be able to figure out what it all really means to be able to bid a government contract and hope to actually make money.

Later on, I was offered, and I accepted, a position with the U.S. government preparing these contracts. I tried to remove the hidden items that would sneak up on contractors, and to simplify the legal stuff. I would end up with a modest 1/4" document, and again, after I ran it through legal, it took on INCHES. Nobody seemed to realize the cost-per-inch of putting out these incredibly complex documents for bid.

It's one thing if you're soliciting covert ops personnel, but quite another if you're simply wanting to get a roof fixed. Seemed to me that the government had a basic formula that made both equally difficult.

I think huge governments have so many [possibly redundant or unnecessary] levels, and the people -- whose money they process -- have NO idea where it all goes, or to what programs.

Simplify. Conserve. LESS government. Take it down to a level where government pays for infrastructure, education and military.

Originally posted by argentus
I live in the Cayman Islands. We have no instrument that we call taxes, but what we do have is duties on imported goods. It's a pay-as-you-go tax. It's geared toward consumerism. You don't want to pay any tax? Fine. Don't import anything -- grow your own produce and eat a lot of fish, lobster, conch, crab and whelk.

Our fuel costs are high as compared with the U.S., but then again, we don't soil our drawers as April 15th approaches. One thing I really appreciate -- no property, sales, estate, income, SS tax. You earn a buck, it's yours. All of it.

We used to have socialized medicine. Not any longer, however medical costs are very low compared with other places. I can fill a prescription and pay less than $4.00.

I think that if the U.S. moved toward this kind of system, the people would be a lot better off. Imagine HMOs for everyone that couldn't afford a better choice, financed by a duty on consumer products.

Does this ring as control by consumerism to you all? It doesn't feel so to us. We're very grateful for it, even though none of us can verify what our monies are spent on.

What I find amusing is that most of the Americans who think the US is the greatest place in the world to live and work have never lived anywhere else...

They figure that if other people want to come to the US and work there on Green Cards, it must be good. The fact is that workers' immigration to the US has reversed a couple years ago, as unemployment is soaring, the migrants are not smart enough to know better and access to the US is easy compared to that of Tax Haven countries that have much tougher rules and limit the maximum length of stay - 6 years in Bermuda, for instance...

All those who praise high tax countries have never lived in one where there is no tax other than an import duty - roughly equivalent to VAT - that taxes the consumption of each individual, NOT based on his/her earnings...

If you save 60 or 70% of the money you would otherwise pay in tax, you can afford the premiums of a pretty good health insurance and manage your surplus funds yourself - thereby by-passing the pension managers profits - so that in the twilight of you life, you'll be sitting on a decent nest egg in a pretty and safe Caribbean Tropical Tax Haven...

You're also free to fly to places where health care is high quality and one tenth the cost of similar procedures in the US: Cuba, South Africa, Argentina come to mind...

But, shhttt... don't tell anybody how lucky some people in some countries, thankfully not polled by the OECD, can really be...

[edit on 16-5-2009 by Solace]

[edit on 16-5-2009 by Solace]

reply to post by flice


I'm curious. What percentage of your working age citizens work and what percentage are on a Welfare programs?

How many of you own your own homes? What is the ratio of wealthy to middle class and poor?

Can you get immediate medical care or do you have to wait on a list?

Can you choose your own Doctor or is the Doctor chosen for you?

Do you have to wait on a list for Elective Surgery such as a Hernia that would prevent you from working? (This question is because I met a Canadian who had been out of work for 2 years waiting for a Hernia operation so he could work. Here for the same issue I can walk into a Hospital make payment arrangements and be back to work in under six weeks. This Canadian lost everything waiting for his free health-care which turned out to be very expensive.)