From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 16:29:46 +0800
To: Sandy Sandfort <sandfort@crl.com>
Subject: Re: Why I Pay Too Much in Taxes
Message-ID: <199605062359.QAA09585@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:16 PM 5/5/96 -0700, Sandy wrote:
>Actually, no.  When I used to edit a magazine, I commissioned an
>article about how much "tax" slaves, serfs, etc. paid.  That is,
>how much of what they produced, did they get to keep; how much
>went to their masters.  The surprising, cross-cultural answer my
>researcher/writer found was that they got to keep everthing they
>produced except 5-10%.  That's a lot better, percentage-wise,
>than for modern "tax slaves."

It was fairly common for serfs to have to provide direct manual labor
on their landlord's farm for 1-2 days per week, depending on the lord,
plus of course if there was a war you often got drafted (depending on
how much you were needed as a farm laborer.)
#					Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215
# goodtimes signature virus innoculation