Westide Permaculture Gatherings

Creating an integrated taxation and social security system that guides the invisible hand of the market to help everyone.

A fair system for setting tax rates using the average earnings of the population and by linking the use of tax revenues to the cost of providing the basic services that underpin society.

 

In order to form a more perfect tax system that represents these principles and is readily adopted and embraced, LIFE proposes an income tax structure that is based on two clearly observable features of a society: the average income of a citizen and the cost of providing those services that are deemed to be the basic social contract (BASE).It is a structure that is mechanical in its design, reducing political determination of personal income tax rates.The logic is, simply, that the revenue generated by income taxes shall be sufficient to provide for the social infrastructure that all citizens regard as intrinsic to their mutual membership of society.

The governmental layer at which income taxes are levied should be at the highest layer possible and spent at the lowest layer possible. Ultimately, the social contract is between all peoples of the world but we are some way away from being able to implement income taxes on a worldwide basis. Today income taxes are levied at the State, or national, level and that is the most likely starting point from which to work, especially given that there are 'nations' today that are really Transterritories.

In addition to the understandability benefits of this system, it has built into it two variables that are likely to exert a positive influence on the society:

• a mutual desire to increase median income and
• a mutual interest in reducing the cost of providing BASE services

None really.

It does require a certain fiscal discipline and accurate accounting but those are hardly barriers to implementation.