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There were times that the Romans auctioned off the right to tax a region. So you’d pay the state some sum and then have the right to extract whatever you can fr
by rebuilder 5y ago
There were times that the Romans auctioned off the right to tax a region. So you’d pay the state some sum and then have the right to extract whatever you can from the population.
I’m sure the whole story is much more nuanced than that outline.
- bserge 5y agoAnd I thought debt collection agencies are shit. We really do live in the best times so far.
- jhbadger 5y agoEven 18th century pre-revolutionary France did this sort of thing. The great chemist Lavoisier was executed by revolutionaries, not because he was a chemist, but because he was also an administrator of the ferme générale, the privatized tax system of the time.
- depaya 5y agoThis is how parking enforcement works in some major cities (e.g. Chicago).