In feudal times, land lords laid down the law of the land, or at least the law pertaining to their patch of the land. If they decreed their tenants must pay tax, who was to stop them collecting it? No one.
As central governments (kings and such) eroded the power of individual land lords, the right to tax gradually became the power of states rather than individual lords. And since then, taxation has been delegated to lower forms of government. But to individuals? In our day and age, not so much.
Are today’s times a-changing, though? Are governments consciously or unconsciously delegating powers of taxation to a historic class of once-powerful individuals, their stature now shrunken into a single word — landlords — even as their powers are enhanced?
A recent article in The Guardian suggests that in the UK at least, overly permissive laws governing the behavior of landlords make it possible for both private individuals, and corporations as well, to effectively tax citizens.
How does such a circumstance happen?
Private landlords can be viewed as a desirable resource for any capitalist country. Some portion of a population cannot afford to own the shelter that is a fundamental necessity for all citizens. For those who must be tenants, they have no choice but to rent a home owned by someone else. In a capitalist society, private landlords relieve responsible governments from the burden of ensuring that tenants have the housing they need. A profit can be viewed as a reasonable and just fee for service that landlords provide to society.
Presumably, there is a limit to what is ‘reasonable’ profit. So what happens when a landlord, earning a reasonable profit together with necessary fees for the management and upkeep of a rental unit, suddenly decides to double his profit? Has the definition of ‘reasonable’ suddenly changed at the whim of the landlord?
When a society arms landlords with the right to raise rents beyond reason, and/or to evict tenants unwilling or unable to pay more, it can be argued that governments are granting individuals or corporations the right to tax citizens. Those conditions currently exist in the UK at least.
Read more in The Guardian: Poor Tenants Pay For Landlords To Live Like Kings. It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way
