TAXES, TAXES, TAXES

POLITICAL DESPAIR

From Alva McClain's book "The Greatness of the Kingdom

Ye shall cry out in that day because of your king.     —1 Sam. 8:18

It is easy to forget that "we the people" in the long run must always pay for whatever the government does for us. Only fools suppose that by committing a matter to the government, they can get it done for nothing. Still worse, human government not only makes the people pay for everything done for them, but it always makes them pay more than it should cost. For only a part of the wealth taken by the government ever comes back to the people in services. No lesson in human history is taught more clearly than this, yet the lesson apparently is never learned. When, in the days of Samuel, the Jewish people became dissatisfied with the simple and direct rule of Jehovah and demanded a king "like all the na­tions," they had been plainly warned of the high cost they would pay for being thus governed (1 Sam. 8:7-20). The passage reads as follows:

7. And the LORD said unto Samuel . . . .

9. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemn­ly unto them, and chew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.

10. And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.

11. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.

12. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.

13. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

14. And he will take your fields and your vineyards, and your olive-yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

15. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

16. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

17. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

18. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.

19. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;

20. That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

This remarkable passage deserves to be studied, not only by theologians and preachers, but also by political scientists and economists. It shows that the needs and problems of human government do not change much from generation to generation. You will find here, not only an accurate prediction of the trends of gov­ernment in the historical kingdom of Israel, but also many items which are currently trying the souls of thoughtful men in the field of government. Actually there is not much difference between the various types of political government, as regards their avowed pur­poses and general tendencies. For all alike start out with the best of professed intentions to give the governed something better than they have had.

In the days of Samuel, Israel had wanted a king to "judge" them and to lead them in their "battles" (vs. 20). We have here a recog­nition of the two problems of order and power; the one internal, and the other external.

These two have been called "the original and . . . fundamental values of government." It is an axiom of history that no government has ever succeeded, even temporarily, without offering to the people these two values. No dictator or tyrant ever ruled who did not, to some extent, provide for 1. Order within the state and 2. Protection against external enemies. This, then, is the fundamental good supplied by all government in some measure, regardless of its character or motives.

The real difference between the various kinds of government is found in the price people have had to pay for these benefits of internal order and external safety. And the stability of government will vary according to the cost of being governed. This is why a dictatorship in the long run is the most unstable of all govern­ments, because it greatly overestimates the price men will be willing to pay for its benefits.

We may say, therefore, that Israel was right in her desire for the benefits of order and power. Her mistake is found in the kind of government she asked for. Not that there is anything funda­mentally wrong with the monarchial form; for the final and perfect government on earth will be centralized in a "King." But Israel asked for a king like all the nations (1 Sam. 8:19-20). And that kind of a government would cost the people dearly in the long run, as Samuel warned the nation. For, no matter how low the cost at the beginning, the inevitable trend is upward; and the rise is often swift. Compare, for example, the simple requirements of the government under Saul with the gigantic and costly machine under Solomon — all within the brief span of one generation.

Let us now, in the prophecy of 1 Samuel 8:7-20, observe the tendencies which would arise to plague Israel, and which are in­herent in all government under sinful men, i.e., government "like all the nations."

a. Government service. Under the contemplated king the gov­ernment will bring the people into its service: first, into military service for "chariots" and "horsemen" (vs. 11); and second, into civil service of various kinds — agricultural, manufacturing, and food processing (vss. 12-13). Here we have a beginning of govern­mental bureaucracy, the growth of which in all recorded history of the nations has never been voluntarily halted.

b. Job-making. This will begin in the military department of government where there will be not only "captains over thousands" but also "captains over fifties" (vs. 12). Speaking in modern terms, they make the units smaller so as to create and use more generals! Some men will be employed to "run before" the king's chariots (vs. 11) — a perfectly useless procedure, except for creating public attention. Once launched, men have generally found it impossible to control or dislodge any department of government service. On the contrary, each one invariably tries to expand in scope and numbers.

c. Labor scarcity. The Word of God through Samuel warns Israel that the government will take "your sons" and "daughters," "your menservants" and "maidservants" (vss. 11, 13, 16). Thus the un­warranted expansion of the governmental service will take many people out of normally productive pursuits. Sons and daughters who ought to be helping in family activities, as well as other workers needed on farms and in factories, are drawn into the service of the government. The result is labor shortages and serious eco­nomic maladjustment.

d. Government for its own sake. The state now comes first. As the Bible puts the matter, the ruler sets his employees to doing "his work" (vs. 16), "for himself" (vs. 11), for "his harvest" (vs. 12), and for "his chariots" (vs. 11). Thus the energies of the state are now primarily devoted to the maintenance of the government. For, no matter how idealistically political officials may talk about serving "the people," the ugly fact remains that a government is interested first and last in its own support and perpetuation. There­fore, the average employee must render his first loyalty to the government, which generally means to the "party" or cabal that controls it. In this way the labors of men tend to become non­productive; personal incentive is diminished; and the vested in­terests of government operate for their own sake.

e. Burdensome taxation. To support all its army of employees and officials takes money. Hence, the state must always be in­creasing the taxes to keep up with the growth of the bureaucracy. And so, in the words of Samuel, the government will take "a tenth of your seed . . . of your vineyards . . . of your sheep" (vss. 15, 17). Gloomy as the picture seems, it should be noted that this predicted tax would be only one-tenth of one thing, namely, the food pro­duction of the governed. In our more enlightened modern times, the cost of government actually exceeds the value of all our ex­penditure for food! Today a mere ten per cent tax on all production would be hailed as an approach to the Millennium. The curse of heavy taxation has been thus described by a noted modern econo­mist: "For every additional dollar that the government spends, the taxpayers have one dollar less to spend. The situation is worse than this. Taxation erodes the incentives to produce and earn. It penal­izes success, and the production of marketable products, often in order to subsidize continued production of unmarketable products. It sets up an army of tax gatherers. In the end it meets fewer real needs than before. People spend the money they themselves earn on what they themselves really want. The government spends money, not on what the rest of us want, but on what the bureaucrats think is good for us." 6

f. Property confiscation. This is the next logical move of the state. Hence, we read in this eighth chapter of First Samuel that the government, no longer satisfied with a tax on production, begins to take over the basic` sources of wealth; i.e., "your fields . . . your vineyards . . . your olive yards, even the best of them" (vs. 14). Respect for private property diminishes in proportion to the ex­pansion of government and its vast monetary requirements. The devices of confiscation today are various and often disguised by high-sounding terms — controlled currency, social legislation, income taxation, the public good—but underneath them all, the relentless search goes on to find more sources of income for the state. And once started on this road, there is humanly speaking no point of return.

g. Political corruption. The ancient prophecy of Samuel warns further that the government will take the wealth, acquired by taxa­tion and confiscation, and "give to his officers, and to his servants" (vs. 15). It is an unpleasant fact that a large share of government income always finds its way into the hands of the partisans of the ruling party. Of course, politicians will talk grandly about devoting the "public wealth" to the "common good," but this is never wholly the case. Often it is taken away from those who produced it and given to the undeserving. In fact, some modern economists and state officials have frankly asserted the desirability of thus re­distributing the wealth of society. But to carry out these "benevo­lent" purposes, the rulers must keep themselves in power. And once a government gets enough people working for it, the prob­lem is solved. The formula is simple — spend, tax, elect — as one cynical official tersely put the matter.

h. Totalitarian control. The final word of Samuel's prophecy, concerning the gargantuan growth of human government when left to itself, is addressed to the whole nation of Israel, "Ye shall be his servants" (vs. 17). Thus the end of the vicious circle is reached when all the people exist and work only for the State, which swal­lows up the very citizens who created it.

It is to the lasting credit of the founding fathers of our own American system that they re­garded all highly centralized government with a deep and cold suspicion, holding that the less we had of it, the better off we would be. But strangely enough today, for every failure of highly cen­tralized government, its supporters have no remedy except a larger dose of the same thing — "the hair of the dog that bit them." We no longer believe that to be true.

i.            Intolerable oppression. The overall result of the above tend­encies is deep distress for all the subjects of the State. In the words of Scripture, "Ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you" (vs. 18). And we must not fail to note that this oppression has been caused, not by some foreign power, but by the very government that the people had chosen. Human government is necessary, but people who are wise never let it get too big or powerful. Unless strictly limited, the end is loss of liberty, economic distress, and political despair.

HELLO WORLD TODAY. GOD SAID IT AND WAS IT EVER TRUE. I HOPE YOU ARE TRUSTING HIM FOR SALVATION FROM WHAT THIS WORLD HAS CAME TO. IT ONLY HAS A FEW MORE STEPS TO TAKE BEFORE CHRIST SAYS THAT IS ENOUGH.