Democracy and the alleviation of poverty

Every 5 years, as elections loom, politicians hit the streets with promises of “better service delivery”, “creating more jobs”, “providing houses”, “alleviating poverty”, and people trudge to the polls to cast their ballot.

Each time round unemployment gets worse, most people are poorer, and more houses are required at the end of their tenure than at the beginning. Some people vote according to the race of the politician, others according to religion, but one thing no-body promises, and no one votes for, is freedom. Why would we when we think that we are already free.

Many of us support democratic elections because of the promise of “something for nothing”. The thought that the wealth of someone else will be taken and sheared with us is very appealing. Add to this a moral slant that suggests that this is our right, and all inhibitions fall away.

Do any of us really think about this?

A point that must be made at the outset is that nobody has any “rights” upon other people other than the right of the indigent to tithe and zakaah. A wrong done by someone in the past cannot be corrected by penalizing others in the future. This is gross injustice and any system based on injustice is doomed to failure.

We can all be successful as long as we are not prevented from exercising our individual God-given potential for our benefit. Shariah ensures that no one is subjugated in any way, fulfilling the most important criterion for a successful society.

Governments of today collect taxes but do not promise anything in return, and there is no way that government can be held liable for the failure of politicians to keep their election promises.

That which government doess provide is made possible because of taxes.

These taxes affect everyone, since things such as VAT, fuel levies, import duties, and license fees affect everyone, but the ones affected the most are the poor. The super rich have ways of legally paying very little tax.

Most of the tax that is collected is from the poor (though each person pays a small amount comparatively, the large number of poor people results in most of the tax that is collected having come from them), but they get very little in return. Most of the benefit actually goes to the rich or the politicians.

Poverty can not be eliminated by a system (such as Democracy) that inherently creates poverty.

The public administration carries a huge administrative cost that consumes a large part of the money collected. This is good money that is wasted but the accounting methods used reflect this spending as part of national productivity. This is a gross misrepresentation, hiding the true cost to the nation of bloated and wasteful government bureaucracies.The more government wastes on itsef, the more productive the nation is said to be. What can be more diabolical.

Where there is a large pool of money, there will always be someone willing to try and siphon some of this for themselves, and fraud and theft are common problems that are huge, and will never be eliminated under the present system.

When anything is taken from someone against their wishes and without their consent, this is theft, and involuntary taxes falls in this category.

Everyone who receives pensions, grants, disability payments, or any other “state benefit” is a recipient of stolen goods. God warns us that consuming this is taking poison into our system.There is a diifeerence between someone who receives charity having had no hand in how that wealth was acquired, compared to a person who abbets and assists a criminal to steal goods from a third party, then receives a share in the stolen goods.When we vote for someone because they promise us these monetary rewards for supporting them, we make the theft possible and are the recipients of stolen goods.

The asset stripping nature of taxes leaves most people unable to take care even of their personal needs, let alone those who are destitute. In the absence of taxes, more people who are really worthy recipients of charity will be helped by those close to them and who know their situation because they will have more money at thier disposal. State social services can never hope to match the efficiency of this.

Unjust “rates” on residential property can cause people to lose their homes because of inability to pay this tax. Is there a more unjust tax that one can imagine?

Pensions and grants can never solve our dire situation, it only makes it worse as people learn very quickly that working hard does not pay, we only end up paying more in taxes. The route followed by many is to try and qualify for “disability”, increasing further the burden on the state.

Added to this is the problem of people drawing state benefits when they do not qualify, and made possible by “contacts”. Where ever there is some money to be collected, there will always be someone who tries to become a beneficiary. Abuse of disability grants is well known.

This problem is compounded by the self-authorized power of government to make laws, and in this specific instance, Labour laws, which protect only those that are already employed thereby making it very difficult for people to be fired, and also makes it very difficult for people to employ others on a casual basis and for a small stipend. Many people who could survive on this casual labour are deprived.

The abuse of state funds is a major problem and one which seems out of our control. There is no way to improve or clean the system; it needs to be totally replaced.

Shariah is truly the answer.

Under this system there are no involuntary taxes and restrictive laws. People can hire and fire with greater discretion. People who are valuable can be rewarded without the concern that those who are useless must be kept employed and remunerated under the principle of “equal pay”.

There is a motivation to work since no work means no pay. The need for fraudulent doctor’s notes (and everything else this entails) comes to a grinding halt. Further motivation to work is provided by the fact that more work means more money in the pocket, not more tax payments.The absence of state grants makes being disabled a disability, not an advantage.

The cost of living drops precipitously because of the absence of import and other duties, end of VAT, no levies on fuel, no license etc. People are able to live a better life with less money than before, and there are also greater job opportunities as industry and small businesses are free to employ people without the concerns of oppressive labour laws.There is endleess opportunities for budding entrepreneurs to try their hand because of the absence of licenses and license fees. The best will thrive, and God provides for us all.

There is no way I could possibly give justice to this topic since there are just so many positive consequences of the sharia system and so many disadvantages of the current system.

The most important message is that poverty cannot end under Democracy, it can only get worse. Under Shariah, poverty will be the least of our problems.

The greatest threat faced by a shariah nation is the huge slave armies built by democracies which will be used to try and steal the wealth of the shariah living people. It is because of this threat that our own ability to defend ourselves must never be neglected. Our best defense is to make those under democracies aware of their slave like existence and to help them free themselves. This will end the state funding which builds these armies, and the consequent threat to other nations.

We owe it to ourselves and to every starving homeless person to make shariah a reality in our country and eventually the whole world. It is the first duty to God that we must fulfill.

PS:The following article once again manifests mans incompetance to make law and shows how licenses, (and permits) serve to worsen poverty (and in this case (hunger)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7381016.html

This is the kind of mixed up world in which we live. No one has the right to tell others the degree of risk to which they should expose themselves. Here people are made to starve to ensure that they are not given food which may make them sick, where there is no evidence of this happening for over a year. Pure madness.