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.

Life is not a Misery, it is what we make of it.

We will experience periods of “difficulty” in life, but that is for a purpose, and is inevitably followed by better times, and there are many reasons why this is necessary.

Besides being tests to strengthen us, we can understand that sometimes to get to greener pasture we have to cross a river, and these difficult times can be seen as our time crossing a river, and the greener pasture awaits us if we follow God’s advice. Acting against His guidance could cause us to “fight against the river” instead of patiently waiting till the torrent eases. This could result in us both not reaching the other side, and arriving back on our side of the river but at a worse position.

It is only when we have acquainted ourselves with God’s guidance that we can hope to put it into practice in our life. How much of God’s guidance can we say we are really aware of, and more importantly, how much of what we accept as being from God truly is from God, and not from some human who concocted it and presented it as being from God? How much of these concoctions are of our own making?

If our concept of religion incorporates the four basic teachings of every prophet (PBUT), then our faith and conduct is founded correctly. If not, then we have some serious soul searching to do. This is a reality even if we wish to deny it. Not every "religion" worships God.

The word "Religion", when used in the way we usually do, denotes our relationship with a Higher Being. This Being has already defined the manner of this relationship. It ensures our freedom, but it entails strict adherence to His guidance. The positive outcomes are possible if we allow ourselves to become products of His guidance.

Religious practice where we define the terms of the relationship is a form of self-worship. We place ourselves in a position of absolute superiority and determine our relationship with God. This is not submission to God. It does not result in true success in this world or the hereafter. It does not lead to Paradise.

A celebrity I communicated with refused to consider the possibility that God exists because his mother was an atheist and he considered it a betrayal of her legacy to believe otherwise. How satan corrupts our thinking, that we will follow our parents even when they are wrong. This is parent worship, and anything that takes us away from God, when traced to its root, will be found to be rooted in satan. This poor man was serving satan while blissfully thinking that neither God nor satan exists. Satan does not require that we acknowledge his existence as long as it is his lead that we follow.

In most cases our deviation from the original teaching of a Prophet was not with malicious intent. Consider a pious man teaching his disciples that we should respect all life and learn to see the presence of God in everything. Many generations later we may find their descendants worshipping living things because of a failure to grasp the essence of the pious man’s words. This, I believe, has been a not uncommon occurrence. They have taken the words literally, and worshipped living things because “God is in everything”.

From this we can understand the true meaning of “religion”. It is the body of knowledge passed on to man from God via his Prophets (PBUT). Prophets are chosen because of their inherent qualities which qualify them for this status. They also have a much higher standard by which they are judged, so we should not feel disadvantaged or discriminated against in any way. If we truly think about the tasks the prophets were faced with, we may find ourselves thanking God for sparing us.

To worship God is to act in accordance with His guidance. Worship began with the creation of the heavens and the Earth, the very first things created. They acted as God commanded and in so doing they worshipped God.

Everything other than Human and Ginn worship God exclusively. We have the privilege of choice.

The “religion” that embodies God’s guidance has been called “submission to the will of God”, or Islam in Arabic. One who practices Islam is a Muslim. Every Prophet (PBUT) practiced Islam and was a Muslim. Islam is not specific to Arabs or followers of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

“Religion” has been discussed in more detail in an earlier post.

When we adopt the Worship of God alone, we become free and make it possible for others to similarly become free. This will be discussed in the next post. When we fail to heed His advice, we face all the tumult and oppression that God wished to spare us. Who is responsible for the wars, death misery and social upheaval on Earth?

If our life is miserable, it is because of the choices we have made. If we want our life to change, then we are the ones who have to change. It is as simple as that.

Until next time.