Who are the Freeloaders…?
The misinformed and delusional label “freeloaders” is often used to describe some groups of people. But are we pointing in the right direction…?
Most democratic nations including flawed democracies like India have a tier system for tax brackets and the lowest bracket doesn’t pay income taxes. That unprivileged segment is often blamed for not contributing anything to the nation. But there’s a lot of nuance to that.
The concept of a very small percentage of the population paying taxes is a very misguided and over-milked argument that has been used as an excuse by pretty much every government in India and the world at large.
Practically everyone pays taxes. What this small percentage refers to is the income taxes. And this percentage isn’t anything to be worried about in terms of the amount of tax collected as the total income of the population that doesn’t fall under the tax brackets is negligible compared to that of the total of the population that does….
This has nothing to do with “freeloading” as the people who are referred to as “freeloaders” don’t cost the state as much as the demographic numbers give a false sense of. And unlike popular belief, they don’t use much public resources….
Do people who earn more use less public goods?
Most social subsidies have tiers. And people who get away with paying nothing or something negligible do so not because they are given extra brownie points but because they don’t use them enough to cross to the non or less-subsidized limits.
And people who end up paying a lot more do so not because they don’t have access to the subsidies but because they use them in proportions much higher than the subsidized limits. Hence the argument that people who earn more use less public goods is based on a complete misunderstanding of the system.
Intelligence and subsequent success are not developed in a vacuum
Socioeconomic backgrounds play a huge role in the development of a child. You don’t have the chance of developing something and finding success if you are too busy barely surviving.
When we are talking about developing an equitable society, it’s not about punishing the high performers. It’s not about not hiring based on talent. It’s about considering the nuanced unequal circumstances and levelling the playing field.
Reserving opportunities of entry for the oppressed sections of society ain’t producing lower levels of professionals. Entry points are not the same as exit points. They still need to pass and level up like everyone else.
Even today the most common method of wealth generation throughout the globe is inheritance. Where’s the “fair competition” there…? Where is the “lack of abilities” there…? Where are “value creation” and “skill set” there…?
Some poor guy not using school as much as a rich guy might not be the fault of the rich guy. But not having adequate access to schooling is not the fault of the poor guy either.
The gender pay gap, inaccessibility for the disabled, non-binary, etc. are not separate exclusive issues. They are connected to the same problem.
Taxation is not a demotivator
Taxation, etc. are not disincentivizing to doing better than others. Doing better than others comes with the direct benefit of gaining better material wealth. Not doing good doesn’t give you that.
Subsidies don’t give you the luxurious life that being successful does. It only helps you survive and gives you a more equal chance at doing good.
And if you look at many industries, the very large corporations are heavily subsidized by the governments. Many “self-made” billionaires did so through inherited wealth and government subsidies before they started to scale rapidly.
A large portion of the underpaid workers live off of government welfare programs while the large corporations keep on underpaying them. So, who are the “freeloaders” here…? Those barely surviving or those, whose workforce is being subsidized by the government…?
Sometimes we also see an over-representation of gender in some roles/jobs. For example, the over-representation of women in nursing roles. Why do you think that is so…?
It’s not because women are more promoted. It has a lot to do with the gender pay gap. Women have much worse upward mobility and hence get more stuck with the underpaid roles that men don’t wanna do.
Exploitation is population because it works and is efficient. But if it’s all about “survival of the fittest” and efficiency, let’s consider a few more ways of getting shit done effectively and quickly. These examples are equally popular but have better laws to protect people against them… I’m talking about murder, fraud, rape, robbery, etc….
“Leaders” are bad examples of economic ideologies
Also using examples of some “leaders” who are associated with some ideologies as arguments is really dumb and misinformed. Most of them didn’t give a fuck about any ideology and just used them as tools to justify their selfish means at whatever cost needed.
A good case study is that of Idi Amin. He declared himself a communist, collected grants from the Soviet Union and used them for his personal luxuries. Then declared himself a capitalist and collected financial support from the US to fight off Soviet influence and once again used them for his personal luxuries. And unsurprisingly, he also committed genocide.
If you think that collecting taxes from the rich and “successful” will scare them away to tax heavens and that will ruin the economy of the nation, you’re giving in to capitalistic fear-mongering without any thought.
If that were the case, China would be an “equally poor” nation. China has strict tax laws and laws against migrating wealth outside the nation. Today it is one of the largest economies, one of the countries with the largest number of billionaires.
The very “free market” of Hollywood even changes entire scenes in movies to cater to the Chinese market.
This is not a battle of economic systems/ideologies. No economic system is perfect and everything thing, no matter how great, needs periodic updates and upgrades to serve changing needs.
Often some popular ideology is used as a defence mechanism against scrutiny by the people in power who don’t want to share their privilege. It is our role as responsible members of society to not let that malicious Jedi mind trick work.
Concepts, especially those based on misinformation, no matter how popular, cannot be given more importance than the common good.
Heyo, I’m Aditya, a self-taught multidisciplinary creative hooman and a veracious empath who loves branding. Besides strategic aesthetics, I take a keen interest in philosophy, psychology and exploring new experiences beyond the superficial… If you liked what you read, you can support me by getting a copy of my book, Exploring Beyond the Superficial and/or The Thinker and The Adventurer.