A Bellows on Wealth & Taxes

[Zambition]

I have reflected today, and after doing a little bit of...theory, I have garnered this.


It was never my intent, nor I would say the intent of the League of White in so far as her tenets go, to strip any Ephian of their property. In fact I believe we have a right to property, once it is in our name, within the confines of civilization. Civilization our forebears fought to preserve. I shall ponder back to the case of Zina Zizzo, repeating the fact that as Legate Sayburgh's council, as a man of the law I cherish, urged her to consider other avenues for her extraordinary wealth.


But this explosion and disproportion of wealth in Ephia's Well is not unique to the merchants. It is seen in the adventuring class as well, those who ply the board. While I make no comment as to the dutiful nature of Squire Dandrik, Legate Lhyrian commented upon it in a way that confused me. She told me that those who work the board often are paid well, and their expenses low, and so their dinari grows endlessly. This is after taxes of property, after purchasing a Voice, after paying rent, after buying finite vials in the course of this war...and after all this, some make plaint.


That they do not know where to spend their dinari, and that they have more dinari than they know what to do with. Zina Zizzo was not at fault, and I dare say she contributed greatly to this city. Whether in its coffers, or in its people, or in art and culture, when she preserved the museum. It is the systems in place, and the gross lack of reform within, that are at fault. A laxity upon all that is fair in a Satrapy. That when wealth grows into excess, there is no lawful constraint that exists in our laws, our society, or our government for it.


The 15,000 dinari Voice contributed greatly to the city's treasury, but citizenship should not cost an arm and a leg. This price was affordable to lobbies, to rich adventurers and to the rich themselves-- and of the city's richest, they sit in the League of Gold. There is nothing inherently wrong with wealth itself. But it is wrong when the system treats a wealthy man no different than a poor man. And so the system allows the rich to keep growing rich, while the poor become poorer, falling into debts that the rich set upon them. A Voice here, a loan there.


So the greatest compromise we can come to is to not stop at one tax-- but to keep it affordable to a man. The Voice should remain between 1,000 and 5,000, as it did in the days of John Syter, at the very least, but no more than that. Then we must tax the Voiced a small percentage each month. This city could be making a reasonable sum for Allotment each month, to ensure we can always pay the Accord, if we entertained a tax that even the poor could afford. For a man with less than a hundred, he would pay no less than an hour's wage! For one who sits upon a dragon's hoard, in the thousands.


This is the way forward. This is how we begin to function and keep things as they are, without need to change it once it has been changed. Leave the Voice tax alone, for His Sublimity has made his will known. But we still have a duty to every Ephian. With this, we could alleviate other taxes. The sales tax, the property tax-- the taxes that seem to draw the largest plaints from among our communities. And in its place, a consistent source of income for the city not reliant on preying upon refugees seeking their Voice, for a vote. Equality in truth, not just word.