taxes

[Kelley Walker]

At 04:19 PM 4/12/01 +0000, Justin Schwartz wrote:
>One supposes that with a strong socialist state, there would be a need for 
>taxes to maintain its services. In Schweickart's model of market 
>socialism, new investment is financed with an "assets tax," a sort of 
>rent, on the value of assets used by the producer coops. In any system 
>where there is no capital market, and investment is planned, therew ould 
>have to be fairly serious taxation to raise investment capital.

why? --leaving aside from the fact that i don't think marxism requires 
state planning and that worker cooperative/workplace democracy would be 
perfectly fine.


>In addition, taxtion would be required to finance public goods like roads,
>schools, health care, and the like. Incomer taxtion is not the only way to 
>go--in the USSR, btw, the income tax burden was very low.

health care -- not necessarily. i mean, if there is no attempt to make a 
profit then everything is simply cheaper.

and didn't someone tell me that roads aren't necess considered public goods 
anymore?


>The usual explanation of why we have taxes under capitalism is so that the 
>state can provide public goods that the market will not provide.

yes, it was a typo! :)  i meant to type "communism"

kelley