"The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt, the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence. " - MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO (106 - 43 BC)
The more things change, the more they remain the same. In other words, there's nothing new under the sun.
A heavily indebted government has the option of defaulting on its debt or delaying the day of reckoning by increasing taxes and seeking bailouts. When it employs the Marxist approach of thrusting its fingers into the pockets of the rich to extract every coin it can, it forces a flight of capital underground or overseas. Once the rich are gone, leaving the economy in a state of decline, it turns to the next best thing, the middle class. To secure its pound of flesh, it becomes more draconian or oppressive as it hunts down taxes within and without the state. It is at this point that tax revolts are born.
Inevitably, the end times are on the horizon when the debt holders begin exiting the gates in fear of default. Interest rates begin to rise causing an exponential increase in the interest payments. One day, the government effectively belongs to the bondholders because 100% of expenditure is interest payments. In days past, the cities would be raided and sacked either by the bondholders or invading armies as it would be too weak to defend itself.
"John Paulson, the Wall Street hedge fund manager who shot to fame betting on the collapse of the US housing market, is reported to be considering a move to a Caribbean island to lower his tax bill.
The 57-year old billionaire, who lives near New York’s Central Park, has looked at properties in an exclusive area on the island of Puerto Rico, according to Bloomberg.
Puerto Rico has been luring wealthy immigrants with a new law that leaves any capital gains accrued by residents free from tax. Given Mr Paulson has almost $10bn (£6.7bn) invested in his own funds, he will be able to escape any capital gains tax on future gains the fund makes.
The possibility of one of the world’s best-known hedge fund managers moving to Puerto Rico underlines how the debate over tax is becoming more vexed as western governments seek to raise more revenue and the world’s wealthiest have an increasing choice of locations offering them a lower rate..."
Read more:
http://www.telegraph.co....o-Rico-report-says.html
"As early as the time of Cicero and Varro, it was the opinion of the Roman augurs, that the twelve vultures which Romulus had seen, represented the twelve centuries, assigned for the fatal period of his city. This
prophecy, disregarded perhaps in the season of health and prosperity, inspired the people with gloomy apprehensions, when the twelfth century, clouded with disgrace and misfortune, was almost elapsed; and even posterity must acknowledge with some surprise, that the arbitrary interpretation of an accidental or fabulous circumstance has been seriously verified in the downfall of the Western empire. But its fall was announced by a clearer omen than the flight of vultures: the Roman government appeared every day less
formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects. The taxes were multiplied with the public distress; economy was neglected in proportion as it became necessary; and the injustice of the rich shifted the unequal burden from themselves to the people, whom they defrauded of the indulgences that might sometimes have alleviated their misery. The severe inquisition which confiscated their goods, and tortured their persons, compelled the subjects of Valentinian to prefer the more simple tyranny of the Barbarians, to fly to the woods and mountains, or to embrace the vile and abject condition of mercenary servants. They abjured and abhorred the name of Roman citizens, which had formerly excited the ambition of mankind. The Armorican provinces of Gaul, and the greatest part of Spain, were-thrown into a state of disorderly independence, by the confederations of the Bagaudae; and the Imperial ministers pursued with proscriptive laws, and ineffectual arms, the rebels whom they had made. If all the Barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honor." Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of Rome Book 3, pg 217