Komodo and the Bar Patrons

"Law and Ethics are both human enterprises and there is a relation between them," Laluna raised a discussion, after saying Basmalah and Salaam. "The word Ethics is derived from the Greek word èthos, which means custom. The word èthos translates in Latin to mos, plural mores, to which the English moral(s) is related. They have the same meaning, that which is related to normative behavior. Over time, these concepts have evolved, and morality, now refers to the totality of accepted behavioral rules, and ethics, refers to critical reflection on morality, the systematizing of morality and formulating moral principles.

Ethics can be seen as the theoretical and systematic elaboration of morality, but at the same time, ethics is morality in action: the practical exercise of morality through human behavior. Many laws have a moral foundation, containing rules of appropriate behavior to be applied to human interaction. Unsurprisingly, many moral norms have found expression in legal norms. That is obviously the case with criminal law, forbidding theft, murder, rape, etc., but it is essential to realize that these legal norms derive from moral standards and not the other way around. These moral standards exist regardless of whether they have found reflection in written laws. There are moral rules that have not found expression in written law. Breaking these rules, may not be punishable legally, but society may nevertheless respond with condemnation.

Laws to a great extent are the reflection of the moral standards of society. Moral standards are not fixed but fluctuate and evolve over time—e.g., the legalization of abortions during the last half century— and between cultures—e.g., honor killings."

Then, Laluna told a story, "That night, a beautiful night, and I went to Komodo Island to see the largest lizard on Earth. And my light focused on a komodo dragon, hobbled into a bar with his leg wrapped in bandages. One of the bar patrons saw him and asked another, 'Guys, do you hate komodo dragons?' The other replied, 'No, moreover, they are protected!' The questioner asked again, 'Then what do you dislike?' Another shouted, 'Comedo!'

Ignoring the patrons, the Komodo dragon rushed to the bartender, but before he could say a word, the bartender shook his head and said, 'Don't ask me, ask that one over there, he knows everything!' pointing a man who was sitting alone.

'Listen big guy!' said the man before the Komodo dragon said a word. 'I have a story for you. A surgeon, an engineer, and a politician were debating which of their professions was the oldest.

'Eve was made from Adam's rib,' said the surgeon, 'and that, of course, was a surgical procedure.'

'Yes,' countered the engineer, 'but before that, order was created out of all chaos—and that most certainly was an engineering job.'

'Aha!' the politician triumphantly. 'And just who do you think created the chaos?'

Hearing this, the Komodo just looking in silence, and before he could say a word, a scrawny little man walks into the bar, wearing thick glasses and a polyester suit. The bartender is the strongest man around and there is a long-standing $1000 bet among the patrons. The betting scenario will go like this: the bartender will squeeze a lemon until all the juice runs into a glass, and hand the lemon to a patron. Anyone who can squeeze one more drop of juice out, wins the money. Many people have tried over time but nobody can do it.

‘I’d like to try the bet,’ the little man says in a tiny, squeaky voice. After the laughter has died down, the bartender grabs a lemon and squeezes away. He hands the wrinkled remains of the rind to the little man. But the crowd’s laughter turns to total silence as the man clenches his fist around the lemon and six drops fall into the glass. As the crowd cheers, the bartender pays the $1000 and asks the little man what he does for a living. Is he a lumberjack, or a weightlifter, or what?' He says, 'I work for the tax office.’

At once, the bar patrons, crowded around and asked him, 'Please tell us, what do you know about taxes?' After the hurly-burly was over, the little man calmly began to explain, '‘Tax’ —or ‘taxation’—is a term which requires definition. It can be difficult to define what a tax actually is. For example, the Ancient Egyptians compelled people to buy new cooking oil which was taxed, and did not allow the recycling of old cooking oil—quite the opposite of what might be encouraged nowadays. Tax 'is rather like an elephant—difficult to define or even describe, but you know it when you see it.' Frecknall-Hughes, goes on to cite some of the various attempts at definition. According to Oxford English Dictionary, 'A compulsory contribution to the support of government, levied on persons, property, income, commodities, transactions, etc.' According to Johnson, 'A tax is a payment, exacted by authority, from part of the community, for the benefit of the whole. From whom, and in what proportion such a payment shall be required, and to what uses it shall be applied, those only are to judge to whom government is intrusted.' According to James and Nobes, 'A tax is a compulsory levy made by public authorities for which nothing is received directly in return.'

The use of words like 'compulsory' and 'exacted' suggest that even the idea of a tax or taxation is unwelcome, which may be part of the reason why avoidance and, indeed evasion, occur. It is clear at least that tax involves people or entities transferring a payment—which may not always be money but could be some other kind of property—to another body, government in the definitions given above, although it may not always be so; and that something may be given in return, but not necessarily linked to specific contributions—the last definition making clear that tax is not a ‘fee for services provided’ type of payment.

Logically, tax law as a subset of public law, must be affected by moral conceptions as well. The idea of taxes, gives rise to moral questions regarding the nature of government; the relation between government—the state—and its subjects or citizens; property rights; the proper objectives of taxation; the use of coercive power in collecting taxes and enforcing tax laws; the distribution of the tax burden; and, last but not least, the use and distribution of tax revenue, including the method chosen to determine the latter. It raises questions as to the influence of special interest groups, the balance between individual rights of liberty and privacy and government compliance and information requirements, and the moral justification underlying the efforts of legislators and policy makers to restructure society and steer individual and corporate behavior.

Our understanding of taxes is directly related to our conceptual understanding of the state; where the latter has changed over the centuries, so has the former. Therefore, too, any theory of taxation is deprived from operating independently and must be developed and applied within the broader political philosophy of which it is inherently a part.

Normative discussions of taxation, broadly, concerns the justification of taxation as such, particular tax policies, i.e., what type of taxes are justified morally, and the behavioral responses to taxation, i.e., either full voluntary compliance or civil disobedience in the form of tax resistance and the responses by government to noncompliance through legislative and executive action of tax law enforcement.

Generally, the rationale nowadays for a government imposing taxation derives from its responsibility to raise revenue for providing public goods (e.g., defence, policing, roads); redistributing income/wealth to those who are in need or less well-off (via pensions, social services, unemployment benefits, etc.); promoting social and economic welfare—by means of health services or incentivising certain kinds of behaviour; promoting economic stability—e.g., by preventing high inflation and unemployment and creating a sound infrastructure for the development of business; and possibly, promoting fiscal harmonisation with other countries.

If one accepts that government imposition of tax is morally acceptable, then the ways in which tax is actually imposed, collected and used are also subject to ethical considerations. Ronald M. Green considers many of these issues. He starts from the position that 'at its heart taxation is a moral issue. Every decision about who and what should be taxed involves important moral decisions about values like fairness and justice.' He asks 'whether taxation itself is ever morally justified,' given that taxation is 'coercive social instrumentality.'

If we set aside the idea that tax imposition is morally justified because revenue pays for various benefits, or has a redistributive purpose, is there any (other) moral basis per se for imposing tax? What about a government which taxed the purchase of plastic carrier bags, to deter plastic use, but which did not spend the money generated on cleaning up plastic waste or reducing landfill? Would a state which raised tax, but spent it just on government administration have a moral basis for imposing tax?

Conceivably, some benefits currently provided by a state could at least be provided by non-state bodies, such as religious organisations or charities. Taxation itself is a process which has many different aspects. Any taxing process in the modern world arguably starts with a perceived need for the tax, mostly for revenue raising purposes, but increasingly, perhaps, to control behaviour, with issues of tax policy following (what/whom to tax, and by how much), implementation into law, with concomitant machinery for administration, compliance, collection, monitoring and expenditure all needing to be taken into account. Some of these aspects (if not all) may admit of a moral dimension. One might, for example, have a specific tax that satisfies some moral criteria (however defined), but not others.

History is littered with examples of rebellion and even war when governments have got various aspects of taxation ‘wrong,' as people at root do not like taxation, even though they might accept the necessity for it, and it must be remembered that acceptance of impositions by those who are taxed is a critical factor. Hence, perhaps the notion of acceptability should be the ‘thermometer’ for measuring the level of moral heat associated with taxation,' the little man finished his explainations.

Before the patrons had to say a word, suddenly the Komodo dragon burst out among them, and immediately confronted the man who claimed to be a tax officer. 'Well big-guy, what do you want from me?' says the man. Not answering the man, grumbling, 'This man a ridicculous!' the komodo got on the table, stood up, stuck out his tongue, hissed—to the dismay of the audience—then said, 'Guys, guys, listen, I don't want anything from you ... ‘I’m lookin’ for the man that shot my paw!'

The bartender interrogated the bar patrons, 'Is it you?' says he to one of them. 'No, I just drank beer!' ... 'No, not me, I've had only one shot!' ... 'I'm sleeping here all day!' ... 'Nope, don't ask me!' ... Everyone shrugged and shook their heads.

'In that case, okay,' as he got off the table, and left the bar singing,

Kamu gatal, gatal, gatal

[You're itching, itching, itching]

Bukankah kau sudah berpunya?

[Don't you already have one?]

Jangan, jangan, jangan, jangan pernah engkau mencoba

[Don't, don't, don't, don't you ever try]

Lupa, sesekali jangan pernah lupa

[To forget, do not ever forget]

Aku bukan semudah yang engkau jumpa

[I'm not as easy as you seem]

Engkau bukannya yang ku cinta

[You are not the one I love]

Sejuta pilihan di depan mata *)

[A million choices before the eyes]

Laluna closed the discussion by saying, "It's a pity, even Komodo dragons are the victims of wild shooting. And Allah knows best."

Citations & Reference:
- Robert F. van Brederode (Ed.), Ethics and Taxation, Springer
*) "Gatal" written by Roza Aepul

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