Taxation, Drought and the Golden Rule
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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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-- Taxation, Drought and the Golden Rule (Used by permission of the curator)