Think About It- The road to feudalism

[joeblow]

http://www.wickedlocal.com/billerica/ne ... -feudalism

Think About It- The road to feudalism

Billerica, Mass. - I have been thinking about parallels of today's political and economic environment to the system that dominated most of medieval Europe. I was not thinking of it from the aspect of an exact image of the social and political institutions but rather, similarities of effect on today's society. What triggered these thoughts were several newspaper articles, including one in the Lowell Sun that addressed abuses and inequities in the state pension programs.

Many of us can remember studying European feudalistic societies in our high school or college courses. As I remember nearly all wealth and power was concentrated with the elite ruling class. The commoners (sometimes called serfs) were controlled economically through a system of taxes and debt that was impossible to escape from. They lived under a different set of laws and rules than that of the elite ruling class. Does this sound familiar?

The aristocracy touted that they were there to serve the people of their realm. However, the legal process and system gradually evolved not so much to serve the people but, to serve those in power and those that directly serve them. What captured my attention when comparing our current situation in Massachusetts with that of medieval Europe were the striking similarities. Look at our legendary retired State Senate President Billy Bulger, who now makes significantly more in retirement (Approximately $200,000 per year) than the governor of our state makes in salary. Not satisfied with nearly $180,000 per year, he argued that his housing allowance should be included in the retirement calculations. What sacrifices did this man make that warrants an annual pension of this magnitude? The article I read references many examples of pension abuse by elected and appointed officials.

Of course, the pension abuse is just one example of an underlying theme that seems to be universally accepted and in endemic within our governmental system from the federal level all the way to local government. We have allowed our system to evolve from the concept of public service to one of an elected aristocracy. Those that benefit directly from the servitude of the people are now the ones defining their own roles and benefits. Benefits that are not representative of what most consider being the kinds of sacrifices one decides to make for a calling in public service.

The roles have reversed. The average person employed in the private sector is now relegated as in a feudal system, to an equivalent function of a serf or sharecropper. The people are held in a vise-like grip between two components of servitude, debt and taxes. Through a combination of incompetent government, and horrendous mismanagement within financial institutions we have placed our children, our grandchildren and ourselves in debt servitude with no end in sight. If you would like to know about the modern relationships between medieval feudalism and today's neo-feudalism I would suggest a great book by Friedrich Hayek called The Road to Serfdom.

We now must face the other side of the vise as we are called upon to make sacrifices (pay higher taxes) so that our elected aristocracy and their minions can continue business as usual. Now that the bulk of our middle class has been wholly ruined by the chains of debt and cannot take on any additional debt, our aristocracy is now planning to apply the yoke of new taxes. Have you ever wondered why taxes only go in one direction no matter what the health of the economy is? Boom times or bust -- taxes only go up. If you have read my past column called "Tattered Threads" it gives a good outline of why Billerica taxes ballooned over the last decade.

The new rallying cry of our president is the same class envy nonsense that we have heard since the beginning of the concept of political parties. Tax the rich, so that government in its infinite wisdom and with its unblemished record of efficiency can spend us out of our economic crisis or problems. In all likelihood, this latest effort to tax the rich will serve two purposes. It will transfer what little income wealth we have remaining in this country to the government and it will destroy our upper middleclass or what some call the new wealthy. You cannot make the poor rich by making the rich poor and while some may consider $250,000 per year rich, in Massachusetts $250,000 per year is not the same as $250,000 per year in Tennessee or Kentucky.

The rest of us are now seeing what is in store for us, as every imaginable new tax and fee is being proposed or considered. Most of these new taxes and fees will hit the rich and poor alike. When you see in the headlines of newspapers, a continuous litany of exposé's revealing the wanton abuse and misuse of the taxpayer money -- how can anybody support additional taxes and fees? Have you seen Massachusetts take any bold steps to stop the abuse and rein in costs? Or, is it just so much lip service?

You know that things are bad when it is announced that the fastest growing employment market in the United States is the government. I believe we are on the verge of the potential destruction of our middleclass. What will remain will be the super rich and the poor. Are we becoming little more than economic serfs on the road to a new form of feudalism?

James Mollison is a retired Air Force Officer, Town Meeting Representative and President of the Billerica Taxpayer's Association