The Pope spoke to Italian tax collectors yesterday and had some important points to make, of which the most significant was, I think, this:
I would also add this:
These happen to be ideas enshrined in Making Tax Work,which I am working on with Professor Andrew Baker of the Univesity of Sheffield and the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency.
This programme addresses the issues of the purpose of tax and how tax transparency can improve the accountability of tax systems and so enhance their progressive integrity on behalf of society as a whole.
It's good to see we have someone on side. We just need the world's government's to see the significance of the issue as well.
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‘The first will be last’.
Let’s hope so.
Maybe get rid of the system money makers in the temples of New York and London as well.
This might be a little too long for a blog reply… but, inspired by your descriptions of IOU currency, I wrote this recently. If you don’t publish, I will understand. I’m not trying to preach to the converted, of course.
Thatcher’s Great Lie:
“Let us never forget this fundamental truth: the State has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves. If the State wishes to spend more it can do so only by borrowing your savings or by taxing you more. It is no good thinking that someone else will pay—that “someone else” is you. There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money.”
Thatcher’s father was a Methodist preacher. I wonder how many times she heard the story of Jesus’s admonition from her father’s pulpit:
“Render therefore to Caesar that which is the taxpayers’ and to God those things which are God’s.”
Or rather, did Alf Roberts instead preach on the text:
“Render therefore to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God those things which are God’s.”?
Official tax-collector Matthew (22: 15-22) records the simple answer given by Jesus when He was asked about paying taxes, just as did Mark and Luke. When given a Roman coin, as used to pay tax to Rome, “He asked, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” The mark on the coin was that of Caesar; it was the mark of his property.
“Therefore give Caesar this money; it is his.””
The money is still “Caesar’s” money. Look at a UK currency note. It’s in small print, but it clearly states,
“I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of twenty pounds” just underneath the name of the UK’s Central Bank, the Bank of England. The promise is signed to the left “For the Governor and Company of the Bank of England” by the Bank’s Chief Cashier.
It is signed by the Bank of England. It’s *not* signed by you, or any other taxpayer.
“There is really no such thing as taxpayers’ money; there is only public money,” …
as Thatcher *didn’t* say when she uttered her Great Lie.
Quite so..
Catholic Social Theory is quiite interesting and at times radical.
What they do need to bring back is the ban on Usury
A bit rich coming from the Pope considering the Catholic Church is among the richest and most secretive organisations with its own share of fiscal and other scandals. That said, I agree with the sentiment.