We know there is no easy answer to our economic problems as long as Mugabe and Gono are in their present posts. But the government needs money or, like the rest of us, it cant operate.(Pictured: Robert Mugabe and Gideon Gono)Taxes will increase and higher duty on imported goods is beginning to show in prices. There is talking putting VAT on goods that were VAT-free. It is fair that every business, even the smallest, should pay tax.
But there are inequalities. It is easier to raid small traders than to negotiate around all the barriers that formal businesses can use, producing books to show they dont actually make a profit (so how do they survive?) and tricks like that. But picking on the informal traders first is not fair.
So there are two points government and the rest of us need to remember. They boil down to one principle: any government attempt to raise more money from taxes and duties must be fair, and visibly fair. That leads to the two practical points.
First, those who have more should be prepared to pay more and government should be ready to make them do so.
Second, even if everyone does pay, things will still be hard for all of us. The hardship must be shared by everyone and it must be seen to be shared. Britain during the Second World War gave a good example of this. As an island that did not produce enough all its own food, at war with an enemy who had submarines in the surrounding seas, supplies were sure to be scarce. To share the hardships fairly, nearly everything was rationed; food, clothing, petrol and more.
That gave everyone a fair share of what was available. People co-operated quite well. There were some special allowances for small children, who have special needs. They got special allowances of orange juice, cod liver oil and syrup of figs, all of them distributed as cheaply as possible, by the Ministry of Health in standard bottles. Parents learned to give their children little extras from their own rations. So the children who grew up at that time were the first generation free of diseases, which until then had killed many children.
But this meant everybody, even the leaders, had to accept the restrictions for the good of all. Nobody complained if Winston Churchill still got his brandy and cigars as long as they knew he had to live on the same rations of meat and margarine as everyone else. It was easier to keep a sense of community when everyone faced the same dangers. The King and Queen, visiting poor people in Londons dockland after a bombing raid once said Our house was bombed last night too. and that showed everybody was in the same boat.
We are all in the same boat here now. We need to be as ready as they were to all take our fair share of the hardships or we will sink.
Post published in: News