Snippets:
- Most of us want a societal order where there isn’t a huge vacuum between the classes.
- There is no denying that global inequality is at unsustainable levels, and that interest-based economies are no longer fit for purpose.
- Islamic economics, with its 2.5% zakat wealth tax (and much lower taxes in other areas) might give us a clue on how to eliminate the worst social inequality.
- These are universalist traditional Abrahamic ethics, and a common sense way for us all to enjoy a truly free market.
- In many countries interest rates are too low to incentivise saving at all.
- Through a combination of tax avoidance schemes, tax havens and even relatively innocent methods like transfer pricing, high net worth individuals and their corporations have very little (if any) tax to pay on their wealth.
- You’re not allowed to criticise capitalism if you have benefited hugely from it.
- First, to reform a failing capitalism, we need to fix two things: taxation and the interest rate system.
- The only way to achieve this is through a wealth tax such as the payment of zakat - one of the pillars of Islam - and an effective tool in addressing our current issues.
- Islamic economics, on the other hand, can give us clues to solve both these issues.
Zakat, or Islamic alms, is a simple, transparent annual wealth tax of 2.5%.
- Unbelievable truth:
Let’s only consider tax havens, where estimated wealth of $10 trillion is held around the world. That means if zakat was paid on these funds (perhaps as some kind of amnesty agreement), there would be $250 billion per year flowing into the world’s poorest areas and worthiest causes.
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