Shows what happens when "balanced budget" people are in charge, instead of expedient Keynesians. Thanks vannrox.
Posted on 07/05/2016 4:30:48 PM PDT by vannrox
In the terminal collapse of the Roman Empire, there was perhaps no greater burden to the average citizen than the extreme taxes they were forced to pay.
The tax ‘reforms’ of Emperor Diocletian in the 3rd century were so rigid and unwavering that many people were driven to starvation and bankruptcy. The state went so far as to chase around widows and children to collect taxes owed.
By the 4th century, the Roman economy and tax structure were so dismal that many farmers abandoned their lands in order to receive public entitlements.
At this point, the imperial government was spending the majority of the funds it collected on either the military or public entitlements. For a time, according to historian Joseph Tainter, “those who lived off the treasury were more numerous than those paying into it.”
Sound familiar?
In the 5th century, tax riots and all-out rebellion were commonplace in the countryside among the few farmers who remained. The Roman government routinely had to dispatch its legions to stamp out peasant tax revolts.
But this did not stop their taxes from rising.
Valentinian III, who remarked in 444 AD that new taxes on landowners and merchants would be catastrophic, still imposed an additional 4% sales tax… and further decreed that all transactions be conducted in the presence of a tax collector.
Under such a debilitating regime, both rich and poor wished dearly that the barbarian hordes would deliver them from the burden of Roman taxation.
Zosimus, a late 5th century writer, quipped that “as a result of this exaction of taxes, city and countryside were full of laments and complaints, and all… sought the help of the barbarians.”
Many Roman peasants even fought alongside their invaders, as was the case when Balkan miners defected to the Visigoths en masse in 378. Others simply vacated the Empire altogether.
In his book Decadent Societies, historian Robert Adams wrote, “[B]y the fifth century, men were ready to abandon civilization itself in order to escape the fearful load of taxes.”
Perhaps 1,000 years hence, future historians will be writing the same thing about us. It’s not so far-fetched.
In the economic decline of any civilization, political elites routinely call on a very limited playbook: more debt, more regulation, more restriction on freedoms, more debasement of the currency, more taxation, and more insidious enforcement.
Further, the propaganda machine goes into high gear, ensuring the peasant class is too deluded by patriotic fervor to notice they’re being plundered by the state.
And just in case anyone falls out of line or starts thinking too much, they give a handful of people badges, weapons, and the authority to terrorize the population.
Whether direct taxation in the form of outright theft, or indirect taxation in the form of inflation, these tactics have been used for millennia to maintain privilege for an elite few at the expense of everyone else.
This time is not different.
At $780 billion, the US government’s budget deficit for just the first six months of FY2012 is more than the entire GDP of Indonesia. This is absurdly unsustainable, yet there is no end in sight to reckless spending habits… let alone paying back what’s owed.
Meanwhile, a whopping $5.5 -trillion- worth of US debt is maturing over the next three years. And it’s unlikely that foreigners will continue to generously loan their hard earned savings to Uncle Sam at sub-inflation rates.
Further, given the millions of new entitlement recipients, it’s unlikely that intragovernmental agencies like Social Security will have the cash flow available to mop up any meaningful portion of this debt.
That leaves the old tried and true options– direct confiscation from the people through debilitating taxes and capital controls, and indirect confiscation through painfully higher inflation.
Like the 5th century Romans before us, people may be ready to abandon civilization itself to escape the burdens placed on them by today’s ruling class. Only, by the time this happens, it may be too late to start doing anything about it.
After letting H->! skate today, civilization in the US is questionable.
Yup ... That’s what happens when you run out of other peoples money.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
-Santayana
And these days, no one remembers anything that wasn’t on TV this week.
Thus the need to make sure the IRS is heavily weaponized, like their comrades in the EPA and so on...
“After letting H->! skate today, civilization in the US is questionable.”
First, there was that day in June, 2010, when Obamacare was re-written by the Supreme Court and rammed down everyone’s throat.
Now, there’s the skating of Hillary, in full view of the world, with no obfuscation, except the use language that resembles an expert tap dance, with impunity.
Will there be a third thing, or will there be many, many more things.
Just Asking.
IMHO
I’ll take “many”. Good thing I’m old and have gone partially, virtually Galt.
I have read that the taxes were so high in Alexandria that when the first moslem armies showed up the people opened the gates for them hoping for tax relief.
You’re right. We’ve got high taxes, entitlements, an arrogant government, a debasement of the currency through astronomical debt and radical Muslim barbarians at the gate.
“Good thing I’m old and have gone partially, virtually Galt.”
I’m old too, maybe partially Galt, but if I mention
“going Galt” to the wife, she’ll mention insanity.
(Maybe I’ll just run away from home.)
:-)
IMHO
Make her drink the Galt Kool-Aid somehow. Just don’t mention John.....
Women in the square knitting...Elite dying from losing weight...No exceptions...
>
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
>
Ah, but our Constitution explicitly PROHIBITS 99% of the ‘falls of the Past’, does it not? 4th/5th/9th/10th/13th....protected by the 2nd. Now, all but abolished.
The problem, therefore, is The People whom have allowed the coup w/out firing a shot. It is we, and the progeny, whom are reaping what was sown 100+yrs ago.
Diocletian blamed the Christians for the woes of his crumbling empire. Thousands were martyred following unspeakable tortures.
From the Romans we know that the empire is doomed once the people can vote themselves money from the treasury. Welfare is NOT constitutional. NOTHING in it says the government can take from one to bride another for votes.
Shows what happens when "balanced budget" people are in charge, instead of expedient Keynesians. Thanks vannrox.
Badass of the Week: Basil the Bulgar-Slayer [snip] So Basil, who himself was Macedonian, married his own sister off to the King of Russia (Russia, at this time, was populated almost exclusively by the Viking descendents of Rurik), formed a gigantic mercenary army of battle-bearded axe-swinging ***********s, and proceeded to epically crush Phocas's stupid ass with fire, broadswords, and the massive weight of his own ironclad testicles. Running into battle carrying an icon of the Virgin Mary and a gigantic sword, Basil ran into the fray, defeated Phocas, massacred every noble who had supported the usurper, and then took his assembled army and personally marched it into the Middle East to beat the **** out of the Fatimids because, seriously, **** those guys. As emperor, Basil taxed the **** out of the nobles, who he hated for betraying him, and gave huge tax breaks to the farmers, mostly because he knew those poor suckers were the ones who were going to join the army and fight for him. He didn't wear jewelry, never wore a crown, didn't don the opulent imperial robes, and led his army from the battlefield instead of from his gold-plated palace. He never married, didn't have scores of babes running around all over the place, and didn't really think about anything other than how the **** he was going to avenge himself on the Bulgars for kicking his ass... Interestingly, Basil wasn't actually a huge **** to the Bulgar people once he'd crushed their armies. The peasants were made full citizens of the Byzantine Empire, with all the rights and privileges that entails. The nobles were given positions in the Imperial court in Constantinople, a move that got them out of their country and put them somewhere that Basil could keep an eye on them (huh huh). He didn't destroy the Slavic Orthodox Church, but instead downgraded it and demoted their Patriarch to an Archbishop under the oversight of the church in Constantinople. His moves as a conqueror ensured that the Bulgar lands would be part of the Byzantine Empire for the next 170 years. [/snip]
where is our Brutus?
have we no senator with a lean hungry look?
http://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2011/03/joseph-tainter-talking-about-collapse.html
Cassandra’s Legacy
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Joseph Tainter: talking about collapse
Ugo Bardi
[snip] Tainter’s main point is related to complexity. He does not exactly define the term, but it is clear from the context that he means all the economic, social, bureaucratic, and military structures that societies create. Complexity is the characteristics of what we call “civilization”. Tainter dismisses the view — that he calls the “progressivist” viewpoint — that complexity is the automatic result of the availability of resources; mainly energy. Correctly, he says that complexity creates resources just as resources create complexity... In his talk in Barcelona, Tainter gave the example of the Roman Empire during the 3rd century A.D. At that time, the Empire faced a serious military crisis: invasions of foreign peoples and internal civil wars. The crisis was solved by Diocletian by doubling the size of the army, increasing taxes and enlarging bureaucracy; overall it was a considerable increase in complexity. Transforming the Roman Empire into a sort of an early version of the Soviet Union was a solution — of a kind — that retarded collapse of a couple of centuries but that, in a certain way, made it unavoidable. The Roman Empire could not afford such a large army and, eventually, it destroyed itself in the attempt of maintaining it. Not unlike the modern Soviet Union... The Romans could never fully understand what was befalling on them and they went down kicking and screaming, always thinking that a few more legions could solve all the problems. [/snip]
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