I have had occasion to look at different religious communes, ones that are successful in gaining tax exempt status from their local government right up through the feds.
Hutterites, Amish, Menonites, some ghastly examples like Jim Jones or I suppose the giant Scientology.
As I understand the requirements, you have to pool your money. You can't have a fake religion that is really a trade society to evade income and property taxes. You work, and instead of earning a market wage you get a really nominal allowance for toothpaste and razors.
You work as assigned by the religious leaders and incomes from church operations are allocated by the church authority. It might be elders, it might be a charismatic leader or an LDS patriarch with a hundred children.
But the important thing is the tax advantage. No property tax, state or locally. No income or sales taxes. The church is going to build your house for you or provide the housing. The food. The rich entertainment, bible study morning noon and night!
The average burden on US workers is 36%. So in terms of all the wages that get pooled together in the commune, you have 36% more of it to spend on commune construction or furnishings or more to invest in Church corporate operations and investments.
The U.S. average is a 24% rate for corporations. So again, this is a tremendous advantage for profit, reinvestment, and growth.
In a community such as the Hutterites, they're doing corporate farming, some for use in the community and some for trade. They're hard workers and don't drink or do drugs so they are very productive. The Heaven's Gate people were working on computers. Regardless, none of your trades will be taxed.
One of the drastically different things in these communes is children starting working much earlier. Regardless of how a person feels about it emotionally, what strikes me is the tremendous increase in labor productivity.
These are small settlements scattered widely all over the country, many different sects. But small enough to police for those shirking work and civic duties. You attend a barn-raising or the preacher excoriates you on Sunday.
In very rough terms, a little society's population is going to be about 1.5 times more productive towards after-tax community income, I'd say. Easily.
I have not really thought about how powerful an incentive this is. No wonder they have no problems with food or provisions, dentists and doctors, clothing, housing, care of the elderly, etc. The ones with any kind of work ethic at all.
Now, here's the problem. The money looks real good. The problem is the religion. That looks really, really bad. So no thanks.
Hutterites, Amish, Menonites, some ghastly examples like Jim Jones or I suppose the giant Scientology.
As I understand the requirements, you have to pool your money. You can't have a fake religion that is really a trade society to evade income and property taxes. You work, and instead of earning a market wage you get a really nominal allowance for toothpaste and razors.
You work as assigned by the religious leaders and incomes from church operations are allocated by the church authority. It might be elders, it might be a charismatic leader or an LDS patriarch with a hundred children.
But the important thing is the tax advantage. No property tax, state or locally. No income or sales taxes. The church is going to build your house for you or provide the housing. The food. The rich entertainment, bible study morning noon and night!
The average burden on US workers is 36%. So in terms of all the wages that get pooled together in the commune, you have 36% more of it to spend on commune construction or furnishings or more to invest in Church corporate operations and investments.
The U.S. average is a 24% rate for corporations. So again, this is a tremendous advantage for profit, reinvestment, and growth.
In a community such as the Hutterites, they're doing corporate farming, some for use in the community and some for trade. They're hard workers and don't drink or do drugs so they are very productive. The Heaven's Gate people were working on computers. Regardless, none of your trades will be taxed.
One of the drastically different things in these communes is children starting working much earlier. Regardless of how a person feels about it emotionally, what strikes me is the tremendous increase in labor productivity.
These are small settlements scattered widely all over the country, many different sects. But small enough to police for those shirking work and civic duties. You attend a barn-raising or the preacher excoriates you on Sunday.
In very rough terms, a little society's population is going to be about 1.5 times more productive towards after-tax community income, I'd say. Easily.
I have not really thought about how powerful an incentive this is. No wonder they have no problems with food or provisions, dentists and doctors, clothing, housing, care of the elderly, etc. The ones with any kind of work ethic at all.
Now, here's the problem. The money looks real good. The problem is the religion. That looks really, really bad. So no thanks.
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