Fairness as opposed to 'Fairness'....

Fairness is often a word banded around by politicians, particularly by those in the Labour party, but they are not exclusive to its use, it’s often known as ‘social justice’ too. Indeed it’s a word that appeals to the ‘fair minded’ within society. Indeed, it even allows us to encompass an ethical dimension to our lives, where we might feel one is lacking. But what is ‘fairness’ considered to be by our politicians? Well, they would consider that paying your taxes was fair, in that you give part of your labour to them that are less fortunate than yourself. In other words to remove some of your wealth to give to them that are less well off would be a fair exchange of wealth in their eyes.

However, this fairness is quite obscure when you consider that for them on low incomes are indeed taxed as heavily in real terms as those on higher incomes. Indeed even an annual salary of £10,000 brings a tax bill of £1,293.00 with it. However, a person earning £66,000 per year pays £21,175.20 in taxes. Of course the £44,000 or so that remains will buy this person a whole lot more than the £8.700 that is left on the lesser earnings. One only has to live in the real world to discover that £10,000 will not buy you very much over a year. So can it be fair that this individual pays any tax on this income at all? According to social justice policy this person must live a relatively frugal existence, renting no more than a bed sit and still pay £1,293 per year towards someone less well off than themselves, because that is fair.

However, is there really anything fair about taxation in reality, even for the rich? It is clear that politicians accrue some moral aspect to the fairness of wealth redistribution. They make out that this is a very real way in which we can provide equality amongst society. However, they always omit the way in which this wealth is redistributed of course. Of course, to most of us taxation is quite benign. Council tax perhaps raises the most eyebrows, partly because it’s seen as having little to do with a person’s ability to pay and based principally on the property they happen to rent or buy. For the most part, tax is seen as a skim on our earnings or purchases, for which the majority is left intact or the purchase still seems affordable. However, the methods by which these taxes are extracted are far from ethical in reality. To them that pay their taxes directly or those that collect VAT receipts will tell you. There are a series of threats, fines and coercion that are employed by government organisations unlike any other. They are afforded many more legal processes in forcibly extracting their due at ANY cost. These include imprisonment as well as violence too, ultimately including death if we dare to resist their coercion further.

Social Justice

Ok, for the most part death is a rare event in tax evasion, including imprisonment, hardly surprising really. But it’s quite clear that the government needs to use such threats to make sure we pay our taxes. So where does this stand with their principled pursuit of wealth redistribution then?  Indeed it would appear that we have reached the smoke and mirrors that government so like to employ on these occasions. Having so swiftly convinced us that we have a moral duty to help our fellow man, that our wealth is immorally extracted from us by the fear of force. Can we safely say now that wealth redistribution in this manner has any kind of ethical dimension to it?

Of course not, but regrettably this is the great unmentionable within society, having sedated ourselves so completely from its corruption. We are so seduced by seemingly sensible reasoning, whilst confused by its threat of violence. This is why the enslaved can scoff so easily at the slave who speaks out. We all fear the threat of violence from the state whether we like it or not. To ignore it is one thing, but to support it, well, is to have lost all moral judgement completely. As for fairness one can clearly see that in its current state, that social justice is neither fair nor just.