Q&A: Culture.
Culture.
Question
What is the logic of charging everyone taxes equally? Wouldn’t it make more sense to collect taxes based on consumption, like VAT? After all, there are masses of people, for example, who do not consume culture at all, and the budgets for it are sky-high.
Likewise the radio fee that I pay every year during the vehicle test, even though I never use it. Why do they force me to participate in things that are not essential for the general population, but only for a certain segment, and yet everyone has to take part?!
Answer
That was exactly the proposal of Prof. Ezra Zohar, who ran for the Knesset several times and never got in. Indeed, that has always sounded very logical to me as well, but apparently there is not a single example of this anywhere in the world. I do not know why. I can think of various reasons, but I have not studied the issue in depth. For example, people who have a great deal of wealth would pay tax only on what they spend, and for them that is a small part of their wealth.
As for your question at the end: they force you to pay for the needs of part of the population in many areas, because the group that consumes it cannot always sustain it on its own, and the state nevertheless thinks it is proper for that need to be provided.
In practice, everyone benefits from the tycoons, and in a sense also participates, because otherwise almost no one would be able to fulfill his desires and wants.
Lovers of culture, Arabs and Haredim, and almost every citizen lives and breathes thanks to the wealthy.
It’s a shame people forget that when it comes to minorities such as Arabs and Haredim, when they receive support that is mainly sectoral and suited to them. In the end, all of us are supported, because if we were not supported, each person would pay for his own consumption.
By the way, in the Talmud it seems that taxes were collected according to usage, for example for bridges and the like, similar to Highway 6 and as is customary in the world.