Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
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Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
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Re: Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
#2The other classes still had to "pay," but primarily in the form of military service and purchase of their armor, weapons and other equipment.
Re: Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
#3Is there any information on the total tax burden to the economy? or even the defense budget as a percentage of estimated GDP?
I’m suspecting it was a much lower percentage overall, maybe 10% maximum. This crucial number is conveniently omitted in the article.
Re: Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
#4Little bit smaller government and so a lot less to pay for.
Re: Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
#5I don't really know how to put this into words, but the relationship that the Athenian rich had with the art of civilization and the "glory" of the Athenian city-state is nothing like the relationship that the modern U.S. rich have with the American federal government. It seems silly to compare their motivations for paying taxes to ours, but for some reason I can't find the words with which to explain why.
Re: Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
#6The other classes still had to "pay," but primarily in the form of military service and purchase of their armor, weapons and other equipment.
Or with their labor and lives in the case of slaves.
Re: Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
#7After the Persian War, Greek city states were giving money to Athens to help provide for the common defense. Athens used that to build up a huge army and eventually starting making more demands of the other city-states. This led to the Peloponnesian War where Athens used the resources that were supposed to be used to defend Greece for a different purpose--to try to take over the rest of Greece.
So at least during the period after the Persian War and through the Peloponnesian War the article is missing the fact that most of the money flowing into the Athen's military wasn't coming from Athenians (rich or poor). They were getting it from other cities, first voluntarily and eventually through tribute.
Re: Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
#8Is there any information on the total tax burden to the economy? or even the defense budget as a percentage of estimated GDP? I’m suspecting it was a much lower percentage overall, maybe 10% maximum. This crucial number is conveniently omitted in the article.
conveniently?
Re: Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
#9This is a case of apples and oranges. Modern people expect more from their government than the Athenians so more people need to pay taxes to finance it. I agree that the more you earn the more you should pay in terms of percentage of income but the idea that only the rich need to pay taxes is unmaintainable. Also, when it comes to taxes no one is rich, just ask the high income people. There are plenty of people that earn 200k plus and feel that they don't have enough money left after taxes. And I'm sure there are many people in the million dollar plus club that feel the same. It's just human nature. No one likes to give away their stuff. It's better if someone else does it.
Re: Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes
#10Is there any information on the total tax burden to the economy? or even the defense budget as a percentage of estimated GDP? I’m suspecting it was a much lower percentage overall, maybe 10% maximum. This crucial number is conveniently omitted in the article.
In Capital and Ideology, Piketty calculates that 19th-century European states (such as France and the UK) collected about 7% of their national income in taxes (most of which was spent on defense, courts, infrastructure such as roads, etc). 19th-century European states did a lot more than ancient ones, so I think <5% of national income is a reasonable estimate. Suffice it to say that at such a low level of taxation you wouldn't expect many people to be taxed directly.