# Taxation, Drought and the Golden Rule

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Neil Podger, Taxation, Drought and the Golden Rule, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Taxation, Drought and the Golden Rule
> 
> Neil Podger
> published in 75 Years of the Bahá'í Faith in Australasia
> 
> Rosebery: Association for Bahá'í Studies Australia, 1996
> 
> Nineteen years ago in mid-1976 I attended a conference in Canberra entitled 'Australian
> Agriculture to the Year 2000 - Limits to Growth' presented by the Australian Institute of
> Agricultural Science. I recall one speaker saying that the world's refugee problem could
> soon become more of a concern for Australia and this has proven to be amply true.
> Unexpectedly I made contact with Peter Medling, a fellow student in 1959 in Agriculture at
> Melbourne University. After so many years this was a great pleasure but I wasn't sure what
> Peter's reaction might be to news I had become a Bahá'í. I shouldn't have worried -
> Peter's own life had taken on a spiritual dimension. He also asked whether the Bahá'í
> Faith had any scheme of reverse taxation. Peter lately can't recall putting this question,
> but I safely assure you he did. With surprise I answered "yes", recalling what
> I'd read in Bahá'í literature. There was no elaboration but the thought remained.
> 
> Australia's present drought really took hold in 1994. We imported wheat - what a
> reversal! At a gathering of Bahá'ís last October one of the children asked, wasn't
> there something we could do to help farmers in the drought? On discussion we agreed we
> should pray for rain and I voiced my understanding of the role and uses of taxation in a
> caring society. Later on the Bahá'í Assembly for Hornsby Shire asked me to write a paper
> on the topic for presentation at this Conference. I want to thank all those who prompted
> me, especially Peter and my Assembly, for encouraging this result.
> 
> Even as I finalised the paper in June, Sydney was sodden with rain and northern
> Victoria had experienced some flooding. But one can easily show that drought-affected
> farmers recover slowly even though a drought may have broken. Though the grass may be
> green, the financial position of many may remain uncertain for an indefinite period.
> 
> Agriculture must be more soundly based than this - it has been estimated that the
> world's population "is virtually sure to double before it stabilizes in the middle to
> latter half of the 22nd century ... at a level of about 12.5 billion (people) some 160
> years from now.... Agriculturally, the challenge is huge".[1] Part of the answer is
> to understand the role farmers play and will play in the coming decades and establish
> measures to protect their status, as well as that of the land itself.
> 
> What we are searching for is a broad-based way of bringing stability and a planned
> continuity to the farming enterprise and the communities to which farmers belong. Let's
> ask questions about taxation for example and see how it might be more effectively managed.
> We'll find there are useful answers here - the key is a simple change to the method of
> taxation.
> 
> 'ABDU'L-BAHA AND THE GOLDEN RULE
> 
> The way in which taxation could provide such a counterbalance originates in a talk,[2]
> entitled 'Cooperation', given by 'Abdu'l-Bahá[3] whilst on his historic and extensive
> travels to Europe and North America during the years 1911-1912. Throughout his tour of
> these nations 'Abdu'l-Bahá, for the first time before large audiences in the West and in
> the course of innumerable personal exchanges, presented the basic teachings and modus operandi of the Faith[4] his Father, Bahá'u'lláh,[5] had founded some fifty years previously.
> 
> The key words in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's talk were cooperation and reciprocity.
> It seems his intention was to identify particularly relevant instances of where and how
> the Golden Rule:[6] "an ethic variously repeated in all the great religions",[7]
> might be applied to achieve a satisfactory and equitable organisation of human affairs in
> the 'here and now' - the world of today. He showed, as was his intention, that simple or
> single-step changes, rather than revolutionary multi-step changes, could transform and
> humanize the character of systems most of us assume, or have been led to believe, are
> anchored in the belief that the vagaries of market-driven economics must be allowed to
> determine outcomes.
> 
> Cooperation means working together for the common good and all of us can cite examples
> of where and how cooperation was applied (or should have been) in some situation.
> Reciprocity is a concept, (long 'on hold') which should now be carefully re-examined and
> its implications re-explored. Reciprocity is the return, or mutual exchange, of some good
> or favour such as affection, an act of kindness or, in trade, some priviledge or advantage
> such as a reduction in tariff. Roughly speaking it means 'you scratch my back and I'll
> scratch yours'. What we immediately sense is that the two, in combination, have untold
> potential for achieving a variety of goals important to humankind.
> 
> Purely reciprocating action (minus the human character of reciprocity and its spiritual
> connotations) abounds in day-to-day technology and nature. There is the internal
> combustion engine with pistons going up and down and the ubiquitous alternating current
> with voltage varying above and below zero. In the natural world we have the rise and fall
> of tides and the passage of solstices following each other "as night follows
> day". Perhaps we should, given this, more readily accept that periodic drought is
> part and parcel of the 'Australian environment'. Like it or not, bad seasons as well as
> good are our past, present and future, and remain the major influence on the rise and fall
> of fortunes.
> 
> Clearly this cycle needs to be considered when we seek to achieve a higher degree of
> stability in the affairs of individuals and communities. In combination with a variety of
> approaches, the taxation system could be arranged to allow tax to flow back and forth,
> in a controlled manner, in such a way that cooperation and reciprocity become the norm
> rather than the customary approaches.
> 
> A simple analogy is a central reservoir (or storehouse as termed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá)
> connected at suitable level to a series of smaller 'pools', associated with individual
> enterprises, the latter constituting the total monetary 'catchment'. When harvests are
> bountiful and markets opportune, incomes exceed outgoings and tax, or goods in kind, in
> certain cases flow positively to the storage reservoir under suitable control. The
> reservoir expands to accept this but in lean times, or in any or most cases where an
> individual's income fails for a variety of reasons to meet expenses, tax flows naturally
> and negatively to that pool. This ensures that the individual's pool doesn't 'dry up' and
> the farm or enterprise remains alive and ready (and conceivably in receipt of
> encouragement) to respond to opportunities presented by a following season.
> 
> Reflection suggests that this model has the potential to become an integral component
> of not only local but higher-order agricultural systems. What we should particularly note
> is that the simple proviso for tax (or stored surplus) to flow from the central store back
> to the individual has 'humanised' or 'spiritualised' the current one way process by
> defining or establishing an essential partnership between individual and community based
> on cooperation and reciprocity.
> 
> In such a system it seems reasonable that taxation, on average, could remain at much
> the same as the current level. The central reservoir certainly needs to be large enough to
> provide a satisfactory reserve. This might not be the case initially, so during good times
> the positive tax rate might need to be set at generally higher level. Another concern is
> where taxation changes direction when a farmer's position improves and tax flow would
> switch from negative to positive. It may be that limited support should be continued to
> ensure that such farmers achieve a sounder recovery.
> 
> Also, conceptually, the model could be extended to bring the tax base adjacent to the
> individual; and this is certainly how it was envisaged by 'Abdu'l-Bahá. That is, the
> reservoir with primary interface could be placed locally, in the township or village. This
> would allow specialised and possibly varied local-to-individual controls, the major
> feature of which would remain, as currently, a sliding taxation scale, which 'Abdu'l-Bahá
> described in some detail together with illustrative parameters. Separate, independent
> controls could then be applied to the flow between each local reserve and the national
> reserve, and by extension, to and from any supra-national reserve which could evolve out
> of current international credit agencies.
> 
> The model allows one to look more closely at the aspect of subsidies and implies that
> these are, as such, a potential threat to long-term survival of the entire system and
> should be managed with appropriate care. In operation, the average tax flow must be
> positive, unless the central reserve develops its own sources. It can never in practice,
> remain continuously negative for any locality or nation; neither should it be excessively
> negative for any individual. Common sense suggests that the essential, overall feature of
> agricultural production is that it should be value-adding. This may in fact prove to be
> too narrow a view, but there should be a basic starting point or first assumption.
> 
> Another cooperative aspect might involve the building in of balances based on the
> agronomic feasibility of agricultural practices for the area. For example, a loss
> sustained in an attempt to grow wheat where rainfall is marginal might not be supported,
> since these crops rarely succeed and soil may be exposed to the ravages of the wind. On
> the other hand, the trial of a feasible but novel crop might attract support, since this
> could lead to an increase in diversity of products and to greater security for everyone.
> 
> Nor does the model in any way prevent the "building in" of encouragement for
> practices which have both short and long term value for both individual and society. These
> may include an increase in on-farm fodder reserves and water storage and other necessarily
> first lines of defense and all-important measures to protect or reclaim the quality of the
> environment. Also, valid concerns of the wider community could find remedy by means of
> controls directed specifically (for example) to improve the welfare of animals or retire
> agriculture from areas where its practice is manifestly inappropriate. All these, and many
> other aspects mentioned above, clearly come within the missions of agencies for education,
> agricultural research and extension at all levels, from local through to supra-national.
> 
> The main idea is to implement a taxation system functioning with the deliberate intent
> of incorporating a safety net, from collective resources and out of a sense of mutual
> solidarity. This will effectively underpin the uncertainty and financial risk attaching to
> nearly all cycles of agricultural production. In such cycles, the individual farmer has
> little option but to lock into whatever the season presents - for example, the amount and
> timing of rain or incidence and severity of plant or animal disease. The community as a
> whole, recognising its vital stake in this process, cooperatively employs material means,
> and where necessary in relation to the individual reciprocates, helping ensure continuity
> of the livelihood of the farmer and the valuable and essential contributions of
> agriculture.
> 
> CONCLUDING REMARKS
> 
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá was described by an astute observer as one "who will surely unite
> the East and the West: for He treads the mystic way with practical feet".[8] He was convinced that Europe would sink into war soon after his western journeys and would refer
> to the expected disaster and its aftermath of overt racial antagonism, institutionalised
> materialism and rampant nationalism with dread and heartfelt sadness. On return to his
> home in the Holy Land at almost seventy years of age he organised the growing of grain at
> various locations, some bordering the Sea of Galilee, and arranged for storage. Throughout
> the Great War, he dispensed grain in Akka and Haifa as conditions required.[9] The
> British Government, in acknowledgment of these and other numerous and continuous
> humanitarian services, offered him the honour of knighthood. This recognition he
> graciously accepted from the Military Governor of Haifa at a special conferring ceremony
> in April of 1920, the very month pioneers arrived to bring the Bahá'í Faith to Australia
> and the year before his passing. In all this, he did honour to his Father, Bahá'u'lláh,
> Who is known to Bahá'ís as "the true Joseph".[10]
> 
> Elsewhere 'Abdu'l-Bahá described the "struggle for existence" as humanity's
> "greatest affliction" thereby identifying the philosophy of 'the devil take the
> hindmost' as inhuman. He said that mankind, possessing the divine gifts of mind and
> intellect, is charged by its Creator to at all times use these for no other purpose than
> to build a true brotherhood of man. Should it remain careless however, and wasteful of
> these unique bestowals "of which all other created things are minus", and circle
> away from the straight pathway of quest for this goal, it must without recourse and
> repeatedly reap a barren harvest, 'fit for fire'. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's writings and personal
> example provide us with a great store of grist for the mill of true human endeavour,
> enough I should say, to carry us safely from this to the next divine springtime, if we but
> use it wisely. I should like to close this paper with a brief quotation from 'Abdu'l-Bahá
> which I feel is particularly relevant:[11]
> 
> "The reason for God's having made Himself manifest, and for this shining forth of
> infinite lights from the realm of the invisible, is none other than the training of all
> men's souls and the refining of the characters of all on earth - so that blessed
> individuals, who have freed themselves from the murk of the animal world, shall rise up
> with those qualities which are the adornings of the reality of man."
> 
> Notes:
> 
> 1) Dillon, J.L. 1995. Faculty of Agriculture Graduation Address, University of Sydney,
> 2nd June 1995 - delivered at the occasion of conferring on Professor Dillon of the Degree
> of Doctor of Agricultural Economics 'Honoris Causa'.
> 
> 2) "Foundations of World Unity", 1955. Compiled from Addresses and Tablets of
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette Illinois.
> 
> 3) 'Abdu'l-Bahá (1844-1921) is the eldest of Bahá'u'lláh's children to survive
> infancy. He occupies a unique position in religious history having been specifically
> appointed in his Father's Will to interpret the meaning and application of his Father's
> Writings following the latter's passing.
> 
> 4) The Bahá'í Faith has its origins in 1844 when its Herald, the Bab, or 'Gate'
> (1819-1850) proclaimed Himself in Shiraz as the recipient of a new Revelation from God and
> the Forerunner of the Promised One of all ages - Who was soon to appear. The Bahá'í
> Faith has its World Centre in Haifa in Israel and is today established in over 220
> countries and nations, second only to Christianity in spread and representation. Its
> membership world-wide numbers over five million.
> 
> 5) Bahá'u'lláh (1817-1892) is the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, His title
> "signifying at once the glory, the light and the splendour of God" (see note
> 10). In 1863 in Baghdad, He announced Himself as the One promised by the Bab. He had been
> banished from His native land of Persia in 1852 and was eventually imprisoned in 1868 in
> Akka in Palestine in which vicinity lies His Shrine. His Writings - prayers, tablets and
> treatises concerning the basis of this Faith He as bidden by God had established, its
> laws, purpose, structure into the future and ultimate destiny - occupy, quite literally,
> 'a hundred volumes'. As He Himself has assessed: "Through each and every one of the
> verses which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed, the doors of love and unity have been
> unlocked and flung open to the face of men".
> 
> 6) The Golden Rule, for example - "love thy neighbour as thyself", or
> "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", or "choose for others
> that which you would choose for yourself".
> 
> 7) "To The Peoples of the World - the Promise of World Peace", 1985, The
> Universal House of Justice - Bahá'í World Centre, Haifa.
> 
> 8) Dr David Starr Jordan, President of the Leland Stanford Junior University at Palo
> Alto in California is reported as having made this remark (see Balyuzi 1971, below) on the
> occasion at his invitation, of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's address to the assembled campus, some 2000
> strong, on 8th October 1912.
> 
> 9) Balyuzi, H.M., 1971. "'Abdu'l-Bahá - a Biography", published by George
> Ronald of London.
> 
> 10) Shoghi Effendi, 1944. "God Passes By". Bahá'í Publishing Trust,
> Wilmette Illinois.
> 
> 11) "Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá", 1978, Compiled by the
> Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, Bahá'í World Centre, Haifa.
> 
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> Views6782 views since posted 2011-10-23; last edit 2022-03-20 02:01 UTC;
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> previous at archive.org.../podger_taxation_drought
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> — *Taxation, Drought and the Golden Rule (Used by permission of the curator)*