David Weber, absolute proof that very smart people can buy into wingnut bullshit..

[Fumesucker]

I just finished Weber's "Shadow of Saganami" on the Baen free library, I was on chapter 39 and really getting into it, Weber was giving a terrifically sophisticated analysis of the various political entities involved in his story when from out of nowhere he dropped this amazing turd into the punchbowl.

http://www.baenebooks.com/10.1125/Baen/0743488520/0743488520.htm?blurb

"I think they believe that since the Star Kingdom requires its citizens to pay taxes before they're allowed to vote, they'll be able to control the situation. That the Manticoran system's set up to give the Star Kingdom's upper class control of the electorate while maintaining the fiction that the lower classes have any real political power," Van Dort said, and Terekhov barked a sharp laugh.
"That's because they don't understand how high a percentage of our people do pay taxes. Or maybe they think our tax codes are as complicated and buggered up as theirs are as a way to chisel people out of the franchise."
"Not all of our tax codes are that bad," Van Dort protested.
"Oh, please, Bernardus!" Terekhov shook his head in disgust. "Oh, I'll grant you Rembrandt isn't quite as bad as the others, but I've taken a look at the rat's nest of tax provisions some of you people have out here. I've seen hyper-space astrogation problems that were simpler! No wonder nobody knows what the hell is going on. But the Star Kingdom's personal tax provisions are a lot simpler—I filled out my entire tax return in less than ten minutes, on a single-page e-form, last year, even with the emergency war taxes. And all the Star Kingdom requires to vote is that a citizen pay at least one cent more in taxes than he receives in government transfer payments and subsidies.

Totally ruined my suspension of disbelief, it took me about three chapters to get back into the story again, thankfully I didn't see any more really obvious wingturds so I managed to get through the rest of the book without pounding my keyboard into scrap..

Anyone who can believe that a provision to keep anyone not paying net taxes from voting will not eventually be used by the upper classes to disenfranchise the lower ones is just deluded.

[Posteritatis]

1. I am of course astonished that a Baen author is a wingnut...

Weber's always been fond of his ridiculous politics and straw-manning of anything to the left of Reagan, anyway.

[krispos42]

2. Nothing wrong with a flat tax.

Just what's wrong with THEIR flat tax.

The one I prefer is a 60% tax with a $75,000 standard deduction per partner.

Another deduction for kids, mortgage interest, over-65, blind, and tax-deferred retirement and college savings.


Fits on a single sheet. Ta-da!



Fuck this 15% shit the RW spews.

[MrModerate]

3. I'd say if you have characters sitting around bullshitting about . . .

interstellar tax policy in such a ham-handed fashion you need to decide whether you're reading a novel or an essay. A particularly lame-brained essay at that.

Infamous crypto-libertarian Robert Heinlein was masterful in the way he folded his stories around his political beliefs in a way that made them palatable to people like me who knew he was something of a crackpot and disagreed with him in just about every particular.

Weber is several tiers below that.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

4. There ain’t no such thing as a big simple tax

An interesting essay on "There ain’t no such thing as a big simple tax" is on-line at http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/the-flat-tax-simplicity-desimplified/

We owe to Robert Heinlein the memorable if nearly unpronounceable TANSTAAFL (there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch), which expresses one of the most fundamental principles in all of economics. Each major field of study within economics would do well to find its own Heinleinian acronym so as to keep policy prescription anchored to the basics. Let me propose a suitable one for the field of public finance: TANSTAABST. There ain’t no such thing as a big simple tax. Head taxes, the only truly simple taxes, are never big; income taxes, the primary source of revenue for the welfare state, are never simple. The claim, made repeatedly by supply-siders, that with a flat tax our tax form would be the size of a postcard can easily be exposed as bad science fiction.

I don't completely agree with the essay, but it's germane.

[jambo101]

5. Alien star systems, some have to pay taxes eh!

Lots of strange stuff can happen in the universe of Sci-Fi,trying to equate what the writer is creating with whats going on on Earth Specifically America will only detract from your enjoyment of the book.