Quote:
Originally Posted by Harmon
I think that there's a kind of psychological sweet spot in the overall tax rate which maximizes the revenue that can be collected. I believe it to approximate just under 20%, which interestingly, as a rabbi explained to me once, is what the ancient Hebrews collected by imposing a tithe. The trick was, they collected the tithe twice a year. I don't know if that's true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were, because surveys routinely show 20% as an amount that people regard as a fair tax to pay.
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Interestingly enough, the idea of sort of a percentage did not come into existence until the middle ages. Percentage calculations were not around even in Ancient Greece, they did not have decimals or fractions needed to understand or express the concept in mathematical terms. It was their practice to count things in rate per 100 with no fractional amounts. Still the real use of the idea of a percentage did not develop until around the middle ages.
They did not even have the concept of something like one-third, one-half, one-tenth and so on. It was all based on some number relative to 100 or other round number. Back then they only knew about counting things in whole numbers. Seems weird but it's a factoid.
I mention that because it makes me laugh when I read that whatever "owners manual" for a given belief system states a tithe as a percentage, impossible unless dealing with a revisionist document. The mathematics just did not yet exist to describe percentages as fractions or anything more than gross ratios in relation to some integer, typically 100 but it could be any integer that worked for the situation. And any revisionist document calls into question the motivation for the info.
Again not anything more than a historical aside because almost all of these "owner/operator manuals" use some sort of percentage, it's just interesting to me.
Leave the thread to beat it's dead horse with all the 'expert' rants, errr, testimony.