Before we move into what our taxes should be used for, let’s address the Human Rights issue as this will affect how we decide what society should pay for. I suspect there are as many views on what human rights consist of as there are human beings on this planet. Folk tend to look at what THEY want and need when deciding what human rights are. Understandable!
In my view the only rights any individual has are those that society is not only WILLING to let them have, but is also ABLE to let them have.
In a small society, tribe perhaps, too many healers would leave people sitting around contributing nothing when everyone was well. This would put an unfair burden on, say, the hunters who had to provide meat for more people than necessary. On the other hand, too few healers could be catastrophic if a major disaster happened. Presumably they worked out a viable balance and I’m sure most members of small societies or tribes had more than one skill. I’m also sure they had many a young man who wanted to be a healer but had to be a hunter. The tribe may be WILLING to let him be a healer, but they may not be ABLE to do so because it would unbalance the tribe and possibly lead to eventual starvation and extinction of the whole society.
Bigger societies have a lot more leeway but how do we find the balance between what our society is not only WILLING to do but is also ABLE to do? Not exactly a straightforward issue. I’m sure we would all like to think we could make the very best of everything available to everyone at all times but even I know this is an impossible dream. Basically what society needs are the facilities to keep most people fit for work most of the time and to have reasonable preparations in place for emergencies. Anything that can be managed over and above that is to be welcomed as a bonus.
If we manage to develop a reasonable system of taxation there should be enough money in the hands of the general population to enable them to get what THEY consider to be their human rights. BASIC Human Rights can then be considered in terms of the right not to be harmed in any way instead of the right to have things.
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Hi 'Malmesbury',
ReplyDeleteI think you are oversimplifying (inevitable, I know) to the point of getting nowhere. Human rights are partly universal now (since the French Revolution... no slavery, no torture etc.) and partly a cultural given - for example when religious of ethnic minorities want their own schools, institutions, parliament, and think the majority in their society/country should pay for/allow this.... Where to decide eh?