<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2><< why do we need taxes at any significant rates under a communist system? >>
<BR>
<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">
<BR>Even within Marx's own terms of reference, how do you ensure that what comes
<BR>from each according to his/her ability ends up with each according to his/her
<BR>need? Unless you assume some sort of invisible hand mechanism, there needs to
<BR>be some central allocative authority. How better to do that than taxes?
<BR>
<BR>Not being an advocate of Marxian communism, I would simply point out that
<BR>taxes are the means of creating a general social pool of wealth out of which
<BR>one can finance projects in the common good. Those who make the biggest point
<BR>about the burden of taxes are also those with the least concern for the
<BR>common good.
<BR>
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">Leo Casey
<BR>United Federation of Teachers
<BR>260 Park Avenue South
<BR>New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
<BR>
<BR>Power concedes nothing without a demand.
<BR>It never has, and it never will.
<BR>If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
<BR>Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who
<BR>want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and
<BR>lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
<BR><P ALIGN=CENTER>-- Frederick Douglass --
<BR>
<BR></P></FONT></HTML>