December 27th, 2007

Lots of words have been written about the decline of the Western Empire, and much has been postulated about who the Next Great Thing will be. Some say, "China's gonna be the next great empire!" and they may be right, though I question that, actually: They have nowhere in the world to expand into (a hallmark of growing empires everywhere), except through military conquest—which probably will ensure they never grow powerful enough to be a world-dominating empire. Can't really grow when you're bombing the crap out of things, and making enemies of everyone.

So, maybe China won't be the world leader in assholery, a position the West currently enjoys. But we'll see (probably) within our lifetimes.

One thing is for certain, though: the Western Empire is definitely coming apart at the seams. But what are the signs of a declining empire? It's not as easy a list to compile as you might think, since (and I'll save you the trouble) you find yourself either including just about everything you can think of—which is how I started my list—or you end up thinking all will be okay in our culture for decades or centuries to come.

But I've given it a second try, this time paring the list down to a mere handful of items, and here is my first one up for contemplation:

Taxation and Service Fees as profit centre: Let's be clear: No monetarily-based society can survive for long without some form of taxation. Since our Western society has a whole swack-load of middle class, the middle class is the target for the cash. That's fine; that's how our society keeps running. And though we may not like the actual size of our government and argue about how much intervention it should have in our lives (right-wing, left-wing, libertarians, fascists, communists, anarchists, greens, etc.), we all, except the anarchists and nihilists, figure there should be some bits of government somewhere. And so, keeping that government around costs money. Hence, tax.

But here is where the system breaks down and becomes a danger to the stability of itself ... where the bureaucractic infrastructure asserts itself too much and gets top-heavy and can no longer support its weight: When those taxes and service fees are no longer designed to cover costs, but are instead charged to citizens as a profit centre. That is:

People are no longer charged fees based on what they are worth, people are now charged as much as they can bear.

So think about that for a moment: While it may cost our municipal government a total of $13.74 to create and process a dog license, they don't charge us $14.00 or $15.00 for it. They realise that we can bear a larger sum of money—say, $45.00 or $75.00. It's a once-a-year charge, so people can absorb it, and it means that governmental departments can have larger budgets, afford more people to buffer the higher-ups from layoffs if they ever come. It means little corners of the universe in City Hall can have little mini empire-building Napoleans and Hitlers.

You see, once that change in the purpose of the fee occurs, we are doomed. We are no longer spending a few dollars to perpetuate a piece of the infrastructure, we are now being extorted out of the life-blood that nourishes our Western society. Our ability to function within our world is being more and more impaired by taxes and service fees, not exactly because they are so big and crippling by themselves, but because they are no longer being collected for the purposes they were instituted for. It's the life-long plaint of nearly all taxpayers: "I don't mind paying my taxes, I just hate what they're being used for."

I'm not sure when this started, but certainly within my lifetime. I would say that a general shift in governmental attitude started in the 1970s or 1980s. Before 1970, our culture had a "maintain the infrastructure" mentality about it. After about, oh, say, 1985, all us middle class folks were the cash cow that could be manipulated and exploited for our money. I mean, none of us is rich, but there's a whole bunch of us, and our stars rose for decades. So every little bit can really add up.

OK, that's part 1. Sorry to folks checking my blog and not finding me contributing much these days. I am not out of the game, I've just slowed down a little—it may be temporary or not.

Read more rants - Top Blogs - Comment on this rant - Email me