Ever notice how folktales and proverbs serve as timeless looking glasses that help us see our humanity, our fortes and foibles, even our clothing? As with Biblical, ancient Greek, and Latin references, false prophets and wolves have appeared in “sheep’s clothing” to deceive those around them. Whereas tales of the Emperor’s clothing dare onlookers to deceive themselves and one another.
When it comes to the Anguilla budget, we have our very own pageant of swimsuits, evening gowns and peacock feathers – every year!
Deception of Kings: Garment Magic Based on Birthright
Perhaps the earliest story about a merchant swindling a monarch by weaving invisible clothing was an Indian fable in 1052 about a king purchasing a “supernatural” garment that couldn’t be touched or seen “by any person of illegitimate birth…” While wearing it, the king’s “whole court pretend[ed] to admire it.” Only when “common folk” raised the question did the king realise the deception.[1]
However, the Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, based “The Emperor’s New Clothes” on a German translation of such stories. In that narrative, the king’s magical clothing could not be seen by “any man not the son of his presumed father” – while casting another aspersion on everyone’s mothers, that telling allowed for legitimacy of marriage, if not paternity.[1]
One birthright deception in the Anguilla budget is that General Orders help ensure that citizens are given preference in government hiring, yet millions are spent on professional consultants, with some departments and ? up to 20% of the budget going to ? statutory bodies that have had some transparent exceptions. Not to mention, imposters deceiving our King to think we are self-governing!
The Emperor’s New Clothes: Illusions for the Intelligent
When Andersen took up his pen in 1837, he replaced fears of false paternity in the earlier works with “courtly pride and intellectual vanity” to iconic effect. In his version, “Two swindlers arrive at the capital city of an emperor who spends lavishly on clothing at the expense of state matters. Posing as weavers, they offer …magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent.” [1]
With elaborate fanfare, they begin a protracted pantomime of “weaving” on empty looms with periodic inspections by the emperor and his officials. “…Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool.”[1]
After great anticipation, the swindlers go through the motions to fit the “finished” attire on the emperor to lead his entourage through the streets. “The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that everyone has been fooled…”[1] You know, the same way they fool so many, saying we have to wear rags, so they never go without?
Confusion: Government “Help” Is Like the Emperor’s Clothes
It’s unclear if the Biblical phrase “out of the mouth of babes” inspired Anderson’s voice of truth. Yet when it comes to the Anguilla budget, many have been fooled into thinking the “government” can provide for them, but it produces nothing at all! Government can only give what it takes, and then, as tatters of welfare or begging from investors. That is… While pretending to serve the People, our government has forced us to serve it.
They have taxed many times more than they “justified” in a system without checks and balances to protect the People as taxpayers.[2,3] The tax burden has been “woven” four sizes larger over many years. And, GST was the final cloak in that ensemble, draped over layers of taxes, duties, levies and fees.
Indeed, we are fools if we don’t see countless departments demanding one fee or another – just like those empty looms pretending to serve interests other than their own. Instead, they make it harder to make a living and keep clothes on our backs, while taking more of our hard-earned dollars to control every stitch of our lives. At the end of the day, through a patchwork of laws, the government is forcing every taxpayer to pay for whatever they decide will advance their pretense to vote for one administration or another.
From denying “free” scans for lack of a technician ? to frequently invisible drugs at the pharmacy after fabricating a magical “shield” for our seniors, to glorious tapestries depicting government riches from 13% GST at restaurants and stores, instead of hemming 4% from what they take to spend on themselves. The feather in one’s cap was to suggest the generational burden of a future shrouded by GST could be justified by a single set of buildings bursting at their seams from mismanagement, yet which will soon be sewn up and paid in full.[2,4]
Coercion: Stripped of Civil Rights
Still. The most heinous humiliation was how the GST law stripped us of civil rights, first our vote, then the votes of our elected representatives. That law bares us all with exposure to intrusions, audits, inspections, confiscations, forced testimony under oath without legal protection, and years at risk of retrospective assessments – contrasted by the shock of amendments and changes any day they wish to walk into the House.[5]
Not to mention, forced reporting and records retention, required payment for permission to protest any amounts demanded as due – under penalty of fines, charges and imprisonment detailed in a knot of penalties for what used to be simply sticking to our knitting and minding our own business[5]: And all that after shredding our dreams and taking second jobs trying to survive insufferably increasing fees, taxes, levies and fines that have torn holes in our pockets for years.
In fact, one might describe our lives after GST as: “a system of government in which lawfully elected representatives maintain the integrity of a nation state whose citizens, while granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process of the government… [which] retains full power of expropriation and full power of imposition, i.e., the right of control over everything and everyone…”[5,6]
In fact, the imposition of GST left us so naked, so stripped of our civil rights, that this description seems tailored to fit us like a glove. Notably, it is the premise of an Israeli historian who defined and popularized the term, “Totalitarian democracy.”[6]
Shh… Empress Julia and her entourage are getting dressed to walk among us. Only fools will fail to see these naked truths, but the question is, will she?
Repeal GST – and pass a balanced budget bill. Now!
This article reflects cultural and economic issues raised on July 5, 2021, at the House Select Committee on GST Public Hearing. 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes; 22023 GOA Budget; 3Slide 4, Retail and Wholesale GST Consultant’s Presentation (2021); 4GOA Facebook Post, “GST Performance,” (11 July 2023); 5Goods and Services Tax Act, 2021; 6https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarian_democracy
