I just wanted to post this link, as much to remind myself of it as anything else.  Its an article about how hard it is to gather tax in the developing international economy.  I take from it a message about the inefficiency of a system based on taking (ie coercion) rather than true free will.

People will often try to avoid things they are coerced into (like taxes) and so it becomes difficult and inefficient to make these systems work.  There is a little example in the article that gives a little insight into the scale of these inefficiencies.  It refers to the threshold for charging GST (goods and services tax) on packages imported into New Zealand.  This threshold kicks in at $400.  It says in the article that this threshold is derived from the cost of inspecting a package and its documentation as it comes into the country.  GST is 15% here in New Zealand, so the implication is that the process of inspecting the goods and gathering that tax is around $60 per package… Coercion systems are inherently  inefficient.

I dream of a world based around greater freewill which cuts out this inefficiency and makes a better world for all of us.  I know its a bit hard to imagine this working, but it doesn’t hurt to dream.

Anyway, heres the link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11211133