Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes From: carnes@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Richard Carnes) Newsgroups: net.politics.theory Subject: Re: Taxation is theft? Message-ID: <329@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> Date: Sun, 10-Feb-85 19:27:12 EST Article-I.D.: gargoyle.329 Posted: Sun Feb 10 19:27:12 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 11-Feb-85 06:30:18 EST Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) Distribution: net Organization: U. Chicago - Computer Science Lines: 18 J. Giles writes: >Except for the U.S. and certain modern democracies I can't think of any >nations in all of history which had even a small part of the tax revenue >diverted to Robin Hood type activities. Certainly this view of taxation >hasn't much historical justification. I can't think of any societies in history which did *not* redistribute wealth, often through taxation (although the redistribution was not always from rich to poor!) Can anyone supply an counterexample? (Perhaps Max Weber can help out with this.) Imperial Rome distributed free grain (the dole), and the Athens of Socrates also redistributed wealth. The "welfare state" (although not in its modern Western form) seems to be at least as old as history. Giles is of course correct to point out that tax revenues are used for many other purposes as well. Richard Carnes