Wealth tax, inequality and course correction, By Felix Nyerhovwo Jarikre

Wealth tax is going to be a tough sell in Nigeria even though it is necessary. During her presidential run few years back, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed a wealth tax that placed 2% tax on wealth in excess of $50 million dollars. This might raise $2.75 trillion dollars within a decade which could be used for healthcare, education, infrastructure and so on. This proposal would not only help to raise revenue, it would also reduce wealth inequality.

 

Now we all know Senator Elizabeth Warren failed to get the presidential nomination. It’s doubtful if wealth tax is a popular concept in the U.S.

Surprisingly in Britain, even the Labour Party had gone on record as having said they have no policy to support wealth tax should they form the next government after the Conservatives. That they are more interested in growing the economy by encouraging investment. That is surprising in the sense that any casual observer would have logically thought Labour Party would be a natural, eager advocate of Wealth tax. What changed? Why are they not enthusiastic about tackling the alarming wealth inequality, and raising revenue by taxing the galloping wealth at the top? As politicians, have they seen that wealth tax is not a popular votes getting device? Why would a party of poor, marginalised working class people not see the need to tax the wealth of the rich?

 

It occured to me that even Labour Party of U.K. is a controlled opposition in the hands of the same rich propertied class, of which the Monarchy is chief. Seeing that all MPs (Member of Parliament) must swear allegiance to the Crown before taking their seats in Parliament. The wealthy aristocrats, starting from the Monarchy down, owning vast lands in the country to the detriment of the poor, would do everything in their powers to shut down wealth tax.

 

We must not forget, historically, that the disenfranchised land-less poor from England who fled to America to escape religious persecutions also had their minds on becoming landlords – an opportunity that was denied to them in the old country, England.

To make their dreams come true of becoming rich landlords, the indigenous populations generically known as the ‘Red Indians’ were systematically victimized. The Red Indians were displaced, and their lands stolen by these settler colonisers. Wars were fought as the natives resisted bravely. Unfortunately, they were vanquished as the settler colonisers had superior arms.

These new landowners needed unpaid workers to farm their vast tracts of land.

 

Incidentally, the papal bull, Romanus Pontifex of 1455 by Pope Nicholas V had given dominion over the lands of West Africa to the King of Portugal, reducing their inhabitants to ‘perpetual slavery.’ Having need of unpaid labour, the settler colonisers of America turned their attention to the forced importation of African captives. For 400 years until they were emancipated, the unpaid labour of these African captives, from one generation to another, made these white landowners to be very rich.

So it is true when they say that capitalism is built on the back of slavery. Because it grew on the exploitation of the cheap labour of the weak and vulnerable as a means of achieving capital formation.

As the famed economist, J.K. Galbraith, well put it: ‘Inequality came to be regarded as almost equally important for capital formation.’

So no matter how one spins it, that capitalism is evil is undoubted.

 

Meanwhile, across Europe, large segments of the population were serfs under the feudal system. They were born into serfdom and they perished in serfdom. Living on the edge of despair, they were uneducated, ignorant and poor. They toiled the lands owned by the few landlords who gave protection to the serfs.

Being that the clergy which belonged to the upper class, owned lands worked by serfs, the bishops deviced a theology to enable the serfs cope with their dreary existence. With the aid of this theology, the oppressed serfs could hope on finding peace and eternal bliss in the afterlife after they died. And they were comforted by the prospect that their malevolent landlords would suffer eternal torment of hell in the afterlife. So there was placidity on the part of the serfs, and complacency on the part of the landowners. As a result of religious indoctrination that was unrelenting and self-serving.

The status quo went unchallenged for centuries.

 

So when Karl Marx wrote, ‘Religion is the opiate of the people,’ that came from a background whereby the marginalised, but religion-loving masses not only failed to challenge inequality, but accepted their lowly miserable place in life as inevitable and natural.

So Karl Marx came forth with ‘Communist Manifesto,’ an economic philosophy rooted in atheism. The Bolsheviks decided that the theory of Karl Marx was not enough to ensure wealth redistribution unless it was translated into demonstrable experiment. They armed themselves, deposed Tsar Nicholas of Russia, and brought about the 1917 revolution. Churches were attacked and destroyed. Christianity was under a complete siege with the communist takeover.

We all knew how communism failed spectacularly when Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

In short, inequality is the blight of humanity.

 

Communism is evil.

Capitalism is evil.

Communism has failed.

Capitalism is gasping for breath.

Indeed Western civilisation has exhausted itself.

So W.E.F. (World Economic Forum, Davos) has come up with a concept called ‘stakeholder capitalism’ whereby ‘you will own nothing and be happy.’ But discerning observers look at the whole thing, and see something sinister. Mass surveillance, loss of privacy, the primacy of transhumanism through artificial intelligence. With Yuval Noah Harari, lead advisor to Klaus Schwab of W.E.F., saying ‘there is nothing like free will, human has no soul, people shall be useless when AI takes over’ the alarm bells are ringing.

When you realise that according to the configuration by W.E.F.,

anyone or country that fails to comply with W E.F.’s prescriptions shall be regarded as enemy, unfit to exist, meant to be ostracised or exterminated as a menace, the dangers ahead, frankly, are ominous.

 

Prophetically, it is said that Africa i e. the black race shall lead the world and demonstrate righteous governance of competence, integrity, transparency and accountability before Christ returns again to destroy the ungodly. Yet this looks like a tall dream when one observes how official corruption is galloping without prohibition in Nigeria, and public officials see it as an article of faith to steal and loot the public treasury. Production is given a short shrift. Politicians are not ashamed to hear that Nigeria is named the World’s headquarters of Poverty. Taking foreign loans seems to be the pastime of the government. While the hope of curbing or eliminating wasteful spending is distant. To even advocate for wealth tax in the midst of this conundrum is to stand the risk of being laughed at.

 

Nigerian politicians who got rich mostly through corruption will oppose wealth tax. They are the ones who make laws or govern. Even the poor would be corralled to shoot down wealth tax. Because they too aspire to become rich. An aspiration which they see to be realistic and worth pursuing. And because they have been gaslighted to see wealth accumulation as a sign of virtue, heroism, courage and valour.

 

But is wealth accumulation a sign of virtue? Is it worth anyone’s pursuit? This question is valid as the frontline argument against wealth tax is that it would discourage investment.

 

Nigeria’s purveyors of so-called ‘prosperity gospel’ have encouraged and promoted wealth accumulation through tithes and firstfruits offerings. Yet to articulate a distinct ideology or vision to chart the way forward out of the morass of stunted development that Nigeria finds itself, we should not neglect Bibilical understanding in our intellectual discourse. A careful reading of the Bible will reveal that wealth accumulation is not a virtue.

Meaningful life is not about wealth accumulation but wealth distribution to support the weak in society.

Vanity is when people pursue wealth accumulation for self-aggrandizement.

 

The central theme of the message of eternal life by Christ is that money must become a pliable tool in the service of mankind, rather than the agency that determines the judgment and decision-making of a human being.

So I will not be a hype-man of the rich man’s construct whereby wealth accumulation is regarded as a sign of virtue, heroism, courage and valour.

 

To become a rich man in Nigerian society is to be elevated to the level of a deity. The rich man is feared and admired at the same time.

But rich men are not essential: productive and resourceful people are essential.

 

Is it not written: ‘so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways’? (see Jam.1:11)

Is it not written: ‘Go to now; ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you…Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days…’? (see Jam. 5: 1-3)

 

The foundations of inequality were actually destroyed without reversal when Christ was raised from the dead. Money was displaced: and the Wisdom from above became the sole agency that determines the judgment and decision-making of humanity.

 

Conclusion

When money is allowed to be the agency that determines the judgment and decision-making of a person, wealth tax would discourage investment…This is so because people want to accumulate wealth for their self-aggrandizement.

 

But when money is made to be a pliable tool in the service of mankind, and wisdom otherwise known as the voice of good conscience is the agency that determines the judgment and decision-making of a person, wealth tax will encourage investment. The productive and resourceful person will not resent wealth tax.

 

The focus of God had actually shifted since 70 AD from any organisation revolving around a physical temple of worship unto how redeemed humanity could engage governmental leadership and nation-building. That’s why the entire New Testament is eloquently silent on payment of tithes, but loud and clear on our responsibility to pay tax as conscientious citizens to government.