From: loki@infonex.com (Lance Cottrell)
Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 09:16:23 +0800
To: jamesd@echeque.com
Subject: Re: Why I Pay Too Much in Taxes
Message-ID: <adb3dc8c0102100443a4@[206.170.115.3]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


One should also note that the surplus beyond subsistence was much smaller
at that time. A more useful figure might be the percent tax on surplus. If
the serf was taxed at 10%, but only had a 5% surplus above survival needs,
then he was in a difficult position. Unfortunately I see no chance of an
agreement on how to define surplus.

        -Lance

At 7:20 AM 5/6/96, jamesd@echeque.com wrote:
>At 11:16 PM 5/5/96 -0700, Sandy Sandfort wrote:
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>                          SANDY SANDFORT
>> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>>
>>C'punks,
>>
>>On Sun, 5 May 1996, Alan Horowitz wrote:
>>
>>> didn't the feudal vassels only pay 33% ?
>>
>>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."
>
>
>In the early feudal period, ordinary knights did not live well.
>They were only moderately better off than peasants, and yet to support one
>knight, you needed a startlingly large number of peasants, a fact
>that kings were continually unhappy about and continually trying
>to fix.
>
>While it is difficult to assess the tax rate, because taxes were
>in kind, it was clearly very low by modern standards.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>                                        |
>We have the right to defend ourselves   |   http://www.jim.com/jamesd/
>and our property, because of the kind   |
>of animals that we are. True law        |   James A. Donald
>derives from this right, not from the   |
>arbitrary power of the state.           |   jamesd@echeque.com

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Lance Cottrell   loki@obscura.com
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