Mrs. Thatcher's Poll

LUDWIG VON MISES INSTITUTE VOLUME 8, NUMBER 6 JUNE 1990 iots in the streets; protest Mrs. against a hated government; cops arresting protesters. A Thatcher's familiar story these days. RBut suddenly we find that Poll Tax the protests are directed, not BY MURRAY N. against a hated Communist tyr ROTHBARD anny in Eastern Europe, but against Mrs. Thatcher's regime in Britain, a supposed paragon of liberty and the free market. What's going on here? Are anti government demonstrators al ways, by definition, heroic free dom-fighters in Eastern Europe, but only crazed anarchists and alienated punks in the West? The anti-government riots in London at the end of March were, it must be noted, anti-tax ~ riots, and surely a movement in tion that the new Thatcher "com- revenue in Great Britain has been opposition to taxation can't be all munity charge" was a bold and derived from the property tax bad. But wasn't the protest move fascinating experiment. Local ("rates" in Britain) which are ment at bottom an envy-ridden government councils, in many levied proportionately on the call for soaking the rich, and hos cases havens of left-wing Labour value of property. tility to the new Thatcher tax a power, have been engaging in Whereas in the United States, protest against its abstention runaway spending in recent conservative economists tend to from egalitarian leveling? years. As in the case ofAmerican hail proportionate taxation (es Not really. There is no ques- local governments, basic local CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE he United States owes its tax. Several dozen won enact As the decade wound down, the Tax Revolts birth in part to a tax strike, ment at the local level. In addi real estate component of the tax yet tax rebellion has not been tion, every state and hundreds of yielded an ever-mounting per 01 the a favorite topic of American counties witnessed the formation centage oftotal collections. Since Thistorians. Remarkably few of taxpayer's leagues. Measured real property could not be effec Great studies deal with the politics of by number of organizations, the tively hidden from their purview, taxation-much less tax revolt tax revolt of the 193 Os makes the assessor and collector did not Depression after the Whiskey Rebellion of those of the 1970s and 1980s look have to engage in costly and un BY DAVID T: BEITO the 1790s. Yet in studying them puny. popular detective work. And tax we find that America has a long Even amidst the relative pros payers could not conceal their and noble history ofanti-big-gov perity of the 1920s, taxpayers taxable real estate from the au ernment thought and action, es showed signs of cracking under thorities. When real-estate tax pecially during the early years of the mounting pressure. payers, either by choice or neces the Great Depression. Throughout the 1920s, the gen sity, lapsed into arrears, their de . Between 1932 and 1934, seven eral property tax accounted for linquency became apparent for states put into place overall lim over 90% of taxes levied by all all to see. itations on the general property cities over 30,000 in population. CONTINUED ON PAGE FOUR n the U. S., with most Re Although New Hampshire's ponents are "insatiable." We must Taxpayers publicans and Democrats total tax burden is the lowest in focus, he said, on all the govern united in bipartisan scamship America, its per capita property ment "extravagance." in Revolt: against the taxpayers, only one taxes are almost double. the na In Fairfax, Virginia, where ( thing gets the politicians' at tional average. property taxes have increased up \ 1990 Itention: tax revolt. And-despite To fight this, taxpayers are try to 50% this year, Citizens on Sen little national publicity-local re ing to roll back the boom in edu sible Taxation has collected bellions are scaring the wallets off cation spending. In Manchester, enough signatures for a referen our rulers from Massachusetts to one anti-tax group ran a full- page dum to change Fairfax's form of From the California. ad about school boondoggles and government. The goal: to throw Michigan voters have dumped bureaucrats, and afterwards, out the entire Board of Super President Democratic Gov. Jim Blanchard's more than 4,000 furious citizens visors. The government has tried new education taxes. And the crowded into a local high school every trick to derail the anti-tax Massachusetts legislature ditched for a budget hearing. The result: plan, but this has only increased Democratic Gov. Michael Du massive layoffs in the school loaf public anger. And a sob story in kakiss swansong call for $1 billion ocracy. The Washington Post on "embattled in new taxes. "We're probably going to be but brave" Fairfax tax collectors In Detroit, for the first time the first generation to leave our had the same effect. ever, the people turned down de kids worse off than our parents Much of the trouble in Fairfax mands for more school taxes. In left us," whined the head of the is caused by higher property-tax New Jersey, voters are rejecting BY LLEWELLYN H. ROCKWELL, JR. school taxes at an historic rate. And in Houston, city coun nly one thing gets the cilmen face ouster in the next politicians' attention: election because of their pro-tax stand. tax revolt. And--de More and more Americans are fuming about taxes. And who spite little national could blame them? The phrase publicity-local re "government services" has be come a joke. bellions are scaring the Commentators call the Dis ~allets off our rulers frOIll trict of Columbia "third world." Residents wish it were that good. Massachusetts to California. The streets are a network of pot holes held together by an occa sional strip of asphalt; the police New Hampshire Municipal As assessments, which are tax hikes play dice and cards while crimi sociation, forgetting that one of incognito. But regardless of the Writers nals run free; the teachers are the benefits for previous genera assessment, the tax itself is IN THIS ISSUE barely literate; the ambulance tions was lower government wrong. If the government can David T Seito - author of drivers can't read maps; and the school spending and interfer seize your house because you Taxpayers in Revolt-is a DMV makes motorists dream of ence. The head of the New don't pay its extortions, then you visiting lecturer at UNL\1. car bombs. Hampshire teachers union com don't really own your home. The late 1970s tax revolt passed plained that low taxes have be Lawrence Reed is president of As these revolts spread, watch the District by, but today's zoom come "a matter of theology." the Mackinac Center and an for taxpayers to become more and ing taxes have angered property Damn right, and taxpayers don't adjunct scholar of the LvMI. more confrontational. Ifeveryone owners. One group is tying the want to be sent to Hell in a gov Sheldon Richman is senior from animal rightsers to the bureaucracy in knots with mass ernment handbasket. editor of the Institute for "homeless" can milk billions from appeals on new assessments. An As the chairman of the Board Human Studies and an the taxpayers with these tactics, other is urging class-action suits of Selectmen in Dover put it, adjunct scholar of the LvMI. then the people who pay the bills against city tax assessors. "The attitude of people is, 'Gov Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., is are bound to try the same thing. the founder and president of In Chicago, the tax revolt is fed ernment is bad, government is the LvMI. by fury not only at higher taxes, not efficient, and the only way to Government is supposed to Murray N. Rothbard is the S.J. but at lush government salaries. control government is to cut rest upon the consent of the gov Hall distinguished professor of For example, the head of what is down on expenses. '" In neighbor erned, but the legions of tax eat economics at UNLV and probably the worst public school ing Massachusetts, the head of ers have made this a joke. We have academic vice-president of the system in America makes the big Taxpayers Association in no choice but to put them on a' LvMI. $250,000 in pay and perks. ultra-liberal Newton said tax pro- starvation diet. ~ FreeMarket J UNE 1 990 2 pecially on incomes) as ideal and jects, body and soul. raise their tax levels substantially, Mrs. "neutral" to the market, the The second deep flaw is bound so that the average British citizen I'hatcherites have apparently un up with the problem ofcoercion. is being forced to pay approx Thatcher's derstood the fallacy of this posi It is certainly heroic of Mrs. imately one-third more in local tion. On the market, people do T'hatcher to want to scrap the taxes. No wonder there are riots Poll Tax not pay for goods and services in property tax in behalfofan equal in the streets! I'he only puzzle is CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE proportion to their incomes. tax. But she seems to have missed that the riots aren't more severe. David Rockefeller does not the major point of the equal tax, In short, the great thing about have to pay $1000 for a loaf of one that gives it its unique charm. equal taxation is using it as a club bread for which the rest ofus pay For the truly great thing about an to force an enormous lowering of $1.50.

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