“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it”— Frédéric Bastiat
Gluttony, i.e. the desire to eat incessantly occurs mostly in cases where humans go through psychological issues whereby they indulge in undesirable activities. According to some psychologists, “Gluttony is a kind of support for oneself….Individual behaviour is aimed at maintaining self-existence, which will be threatened when self-existence is denied by others….Eating is a kind of support for the self,….Because when people eat, they feel full of power.”
When the affected ones are questioned as to what forces them to behave as such, they usually have nothing to state in their defence. This is because they may not be consciously aware that their reaction is on account of a problem that they may not want to face or admit. Gluttony could also be a means to evade understanding the cause that may eventually help in solving this dilemma. Thus, rather than holding the bull by its horns, one finds it more convenient to either go for some addictions or engage in gluttony. Experts have held that merely identifying problems can lead to overcoming all forms of escapism, including gluttony.
At an individual level, obsessive eating disorder can culminate in many physical ailments such as obesity, diabetes, acid reflux, and bloating and may even result in malfunctioning of vital organs. This may cause distress to individuals along with their near and dear ones. However, when this disease seeps into the corridors of power and the state becomes afflicted with gobbling up more and more revenue compelling people to pay through their noses; it can be devastating. Since the scale is massive, more people are bound to suffer than perhaps a family or two but how can a State become gluttonous?
A simple answer lies in the quote of E.A. Bucchianeri. She says: “It was not curiosity that killed the goose who laid the golden egg, but an insatiable greed that devoured common sense”.
The very fact that common sense is absent from State policies is enough to throw an entire country and its people into perpetual depression from which escape is either life-saving or life-threatening. Something of this sort has occurred with Pakistan and its denizens. Day by day one can observe the rapidly degenerating effects of policies that are based on foolish wish-lists, whims, and utter disregard for ground realities. The idea that juice can be squeezed out of dry or rotten fruits can only strike those who cannot discern between growth and regression.
The greed for revenue has surpassed all previous attempts to achieve targets from a very narrow margin of compliant taxpayers while the remaining population is getting stripped of whatever meager income it is earning in the name of withholding tax
To extract maximum harvest from an orchard, it is essential to first nurture the trees with an adequate amount of nourishment for some time and patiently wait before removing the fruit. It is certainly not necessary to place one caretaker for every single tree as that would add to costs and substantially reduce the amount of profit. A small but efficient team is all that is required to achieve a bumper crop. That is simple arithmetic, understanding which, does not need any high qualification. Where the cultivator is callous, spendthrift, incompetent, and shortsighted, it would not be surprising to see nothing but losses and wasted fruit.
Our country too is undergoing similar experiences at the hands of governments that are endowed with negative abilities to run this complicated machinery that has the added disadvantage of being emotionally charged. This is proven by the highly notorious tax policies that are adopted especially when it comes to the enormous population of the downtrodden. The mere fact and as per official records that over the last 5 years a staggering amount of over Rs. 3.38 trillion have been extorted from the helpless is sufficient to leave many aghast. This figure represents income tax collected in advance from mobile/internet users who can range between a handful of billionaires to a majority of daily wage earners who have no way of redeeming their money forcefully snatched by a hungry exchequer. The method in operation to redeem this tax is complicated and costly with the possibility of the taxpayer becoming prey to governmental and professional hounds.
This tendency of governments to work beyond constitutional jurisdiction is rapidly converting the supreme law of the land into a dysfunctional document. Despite being constantly apprised of constitutional violations committed in legislation at the behest of nonchalant bureaucrats, the no-care attitude of the government is getting more and more intense.
The greed for revenue has surpassed all previous attempts to achieve targets from a very narrow margin of compliant taxpayers while the remaining population is getting stripped of whatever meager income it is earning in the name of withholding tax. The present tax system is nothing more than a replica of tyrannical emperors of yesteryears who would lash the public for a few coins.
If this cruelty can help resolve the country’s debt problems, perhaps it could be justified but it is worsening the situation. Why? Because the government’s expenditure side is ballooning disproportionately too.
Compare the UK’s 86 official vehicles to more than 150,000 in service in Pakistan and this number is set to increase by 1000 more cars procured for Rs. 6 billion by our prime revenue collection agency, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Already this country is over-burdened by a multiplicity of government departments at both federal and provincial levels which are swarming with unprofessional officials least interested in facilitating the public but most interested in extracting maximum benefits.
Like the nationalised banks, PIA and Pakistan Steel for example, federal and provincial governments are headed towards a self-destructive path as they are afflicted with the disease of gluttony that is devouring public money without either recompensing the poor nor obeying the constitution with respect to fundamental rights. There is an urgent need to follow in the footsteps of China to focus on the people of this land for the next few years and improve human resources to enhance economic growth, which can lead to greater revenue without inflicting misery. According to Bill Owens: “A strong economy begins with a strong, well-educated workforce.”