- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Workers and Taxes.

The working class Does not Pay Tax.

Bu...bu...bu... I don't hear you cvry- you being a long way from Lancaster an all...but 'of course we pay taxes, the Inlandee revenuee [Long Story] tells us we do...'.

But nothing. you don't.

Wages equal the commodity value of our labour power on the market. However, labour power is an odd commodity, since it is a conscious commodity, it is the only commodity that makes demands for itself, and can refuse to exist. i.e. we will not work unless the value of our labour is realised- that value being the cost to maintain capacity (including willingness) to work.

If it falls below the level we demand, we cease to work, and try and force it back up again. However, if we assume that taxes are removed from this value, we are assuming that all workers are working for below their value, below the cost of maintaining and reproducing their labour power. If this were so, however, they would not work. thus, the only way to see it, is that our after tax wage is teh value of our labour.

If this is so, thsi means that effectively employers must pitch wages high, so that we can raise our labour value- i.e. they add tax onto our real wage. i.e. they are paying the tax for us, or rather, income tax is effectively an employee tax paid for buy employers.

The point is it's not high taxes that is making people poorer in this country, it's low wages. If tomorrow all taxes on wages were
eliminated, employers would just cut gross pay down to net pay, and you'd take home the same amount that you were before.
It's the employers who would get the savings, which shows why the politicians are so concerned about "your" taxes.

from The New Union Party site.

All taxes, excluding duties on alcohol and tobbacco (which are effectively a state organised monopoly increasing the price of goods), are in fact paid for out of wages, an increase in taxation upon us, forces us to try and increase our wages, to restore them to value.

All this talk of states taking our taxes is rubbish, the state is effectively creaming a rent off the Capitalists, charging them for using its workforce, making them pay for their own state, attempts to make teh working class pay (like the poll tax) end in disaster. The capitalists pay for their own state, and it has nothing to do with us.

Follow Ups:

• So workers shouldn't be concerned about taxes, eh? Winslow Wacker USA February 23 1999 (1)
  • No. Red Deathy Socialist Party UK February 23 1999 (0)
• fabulous! Gee February 22 1999 (20)
  • Nergle No Like. Red Deathy Socialist Party UK February 23 1999 (19)
    • Nergle do Like. Gee February 23 1999 (18)
      • Nergle erupts in a fountain of filth and slime... Red Deathy Socialist Party UK February 23 1999 (9)
        • Nergle has to clean it all up! Gee February 23 1999 (8)
          • NEVER! Red Deathy Socialist Party UK February 24 1999 (7)
            • but I bought the dustpan and brush! Gee February 24 1999 (6)
              • Never mind, Nergle will expropriate it anyhow... Red Deathy Socialist Party UK February 25 1999 (5)
                • I thought he might Gee February 25 1999 (4)
                  • ROARS with triumph, then poos himself... Red Deathy SOcialist Party UK February 25 1999 (3)
                    • popular media Gee February 26 1999 (1)
                      • Yerwhat? Gideon Hallett UK February 26 1999 (0)
                    • now we have to clean up again! Gee SI February 26 1999 (0)
      • the old predatory instinct genie Lark February 23 1999 (7)
        • instinct genies Gee SI February 23 1999 (6)
          • Statism is what saves your system from its abolition. Lark February 24 1999 (2)
            • Yes Lark but show why! Samuel Day Fassbinder Citizens for Mustard Greens USA February 25 1999 (0)
            • back to it Gee February 24 1999 (0)
          • *Paaaaarp*- nergle is sorry. Red Deathy Socialist Party UK February 23 1999 (2)
            • quick note Gee February 23 1999 (0)
            • mistaken identity! Gee February 23 1999 (0)