Nobles Need Not Pay Taxes - by Thom Hartmann

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Sat, 5 Feb 2005 20:56:41 -0800 (PST)

 

 

Nobles Need Not Pay Taxes - by Thom Hartmann published by

CommonDreams.org

 

 

Published on Tuesday, February 1, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

 

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views05/0201-23.htm

 

 

 

Nobles Need Not Pay Taxes

 

by Thom Hartmann

 

A new aristocracy is taking over not just the United States of America

but also the world. Proof of how far along it has come was in an

article by Glenn R. Simpson in the January 28, 2005 edition of The Wall

Street Journal.

 

" European countries have been steadily slashing corporate tax rates, "

wrote Simpson, adding, " ...between 2000 and 2003, one nation after

another has moved toward lower corporate rates with fewer loopholes. "

 

On January 31, 2005, the Journal followed up with another story ( " Tax

Showdown Promised by EU Chief " ) pointing out that " ...the new president

of the European Commission launched a blunt attack on French and German

efforts to end tax competition among European Union countries. "

 

Ironically, EU leader José Manuel Barroso is also quoted in the Journal

as saying: " Corporatist vested interests are the most important

problem, be they from the left or the right. "

 

This is more than just a tax cut story. It's about a fundamental shift

in power and wealth from average people and the governments they had

formed to represent them, to the capture of those governments and

economic enslavement of their people by corporate aristocracies.

 

In it, Europe is simply following the lead set out by the United

States, starting with the Reagan/Bush administration, when, in 1983,

corporate taxes revenues were slashed to a low not seen since 1929.

 

This isn't the first time this has happened. Marc Bloch is one of the

great 20th Century scholars of the feudal history of Europe. In his book

" Feudal Society " he points out that feudalism is a fracturing of one

authoritarian hierarchical structure into another: the state

disintegrates, as local power brokers take over.

 

In almost every case, both with European feudalism and feudalism in

China, South America, and Japan, " feudalism coincided with a profound

weakening of the State, particularly in its protective capacity. "

 

Whether the power and wealth agent that takes the place of government

is a local baron, lord, king, or corporation, if it has greater power in

the lives of individuals than does a representative government, the

culture has dissolved into feudalism.

 

Bluntly, Bloch states: " The feudal system meant the rigorous economic

subjection of a host of humble folk to a few powerful men. "

 

This doesn't mean the end of government, but, instead the subordination

of government to the interests of the feudal lords. Interestingly, even

in Feudal Europe, Bloch points out, " The concept of the State never

absolutely disappeared, and where it retained the most vitality men

continued to call themselves `free'… "

 

The transition from a governmental society to a feudal one is marked by

the rapid accumulation of power and wealth in a few hands, with a

corresponding reduction in the power and responsibilities of governments

that represent the people.

 

Once the rich and powerful gain control of the government, they turn it

upon itself, usually first eliminating its taxation process as it

applies to themselves. Says Bloch: " Nobles need not pay taille [taxes]. "

 

Or, as Glenn Simpson noted in the Wall Street Journal, " General

Electric Co., for example, reported paying an effective tax rate of

19% last

year on world-wide income, compared with 26% in 2003. "

 

Corporations are taxed because they use public services, and are

therefore expected to help pay for them - the same as citizens.

 

Corporations make use of a work force educated in public schools paid

for with tax dollars. They use roads and highways paid for with tax

dollars. They use water, sewer, and power and communications rights-of-way

paid for with taxes. They demand the same protection from fire and

police departments as everybody else, and enjoy the benefits of national

sovereignty and the stability provided by the military and institutions

like NATO and the United Nations, the same as all residents of

democratic nations.

 

In fact, corporations are heavier users of taxpayer-provided services

and institutions than are average citizens. Taxes pay for our court

systems, which are most heavily used by corporations to enforce contracts.

Taxes pay for our Treasury Department and other governmental

institutions which maintain a stable currency essential to corporate

activity.

Taxes pay for our regulation of corporate activity, from assuring safety

in the workplace to a pure food and drug supply to limiting toxic

emissions.

 

Under George W. Bush, the burden of cleaning up toxic wastes produced

by corporate activity has largely shifted from polluter-funded Superfund

and other programs to taxpayer-funded cleanups (as he did in Texas as

governor there before becoming President).

 

Every year, millions of cases of cancer, emphysema, neurological

disorders, and other conditions caused by corporate pollution are paid

for in

whole or in part by government funded programs from Medicare to

Medicaid to government subsidies of hospitals, universities, and research

institutions funded by tax dollars through the NIH and NIMH.

 

Because it's well understood that corporations use our tax-funded

institutions at least as heavily as do citizens, they've traditionally

been

taxed at similar rates. For example, the top corporate tax rate in the

US was 48% during the Carter administration, down from the a peak of

53% during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years.

 

Today it stands at 35%, but in May of 2001 Bush administration Treasury

Secretary Paul O'Neill suggested there should be no corporate income

tax whatsoever. This was the opening salvo in a very real war to have

working people bear all the costs of the commons and governance, while the

wealthy corporate elite derive most of its benefits.

 

And, as George H.W. Bush pointed out when he was president, this isn't

just an American phenomenon. It's a New World Order.

 

" The corporate tax-cutters of recent years stretch from Portugal, where

the rate has dropped 10 points to about 17%, " notes The Wall Street

Journal's 28 January article, " to Austria, down nine points to about 25%. "

 

A cornerstone of the conservative movement to consolidate power in the

hands of a wealthy corporate elite, the campaign to end corporate

income taxes altogether - and leave the rest of us to pick up the

entire tab

for corporate use of our institutions and corporation despoliation of

our commons - first picked up steam when Reagan came to power in 1980.

 

As Cato Institute adjunct scholar Richard W. Rahn noted in Rev. Moon's

Washington Times, " The idea and practice of the corporate income tax

has been dying slowly for the last two decades. "

 

The December 1, 2004 Washington Times article, titled " End Corporate

Income Tax, " reflects a powerful and growing movement not just in the

United States but across the world. So-called " free trade " agreements and

supranational institutions like the WTO have given multinational

corporations control of the economic lives of nations that were previously

democracies. Holland, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Belgium - the list goes

on and on.

 

In a feudal state, as Bloch reminds us, the nobles need not pay taxes.

 

And as Mussolini told us, the newest form of feudalism has been

reinvented and renamed. He called it " fascism " - a word that was

defined by

The American Heritage Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983) as

" fas-cism (fash'iz'em) n. A system of government that exercises a

dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of

state and

business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism. "

 

We are quickly shifting toward a corporate-run state in countries all

over the world. It appears " free " and even allows elections, albeit they

are only among candidates funded and approved by corporate powers, held

on voting machines owned by those corporate powers, and marketed in

media owned by those corporate powers.

 

But this bears little resemblance to the democratic republic envisioned

by our nation's Founders.

 

If our elected representatives - and those of other " free " nations -

don't quickly wake up and reverse course, we will soon again be in a

feudal world. And it's up to us - We the People - to help them awaken.