Heh, I was just reading about how Japan's government (over a millennium ago) impoverished itself through exemptions from the land tax. The exemptions were orig

Heh, I was just reading about how Japan's government (over a millennium ago) impoverished itself through exemptions from the land tax. The exemptions were originally meant to foster religion and reward special service, but the government left loopholes by which the land tax exemptions spread to a considerable fraction of arable land in Japan. For example, owners of taxed land would sell their land to a tax-exempt lord or monastery, then rent the land back from him. Monasteries exploded in number and size as tax exemption and other government perks turned religion into an attractive career. Since the whole burden of funding the government rested on the shrinking remnant of taxable land, this meant financial ruin for many taxpayers, who could only save themselves by selling their land... often to a tax-exempt landholder. The concept is entirely different, but there is a surface similarity: a government program aimed at a small group of people (American family farmers, Japanese monks and favored families) was taken over by shrewd businessmen and turned into a thriving welfare business, at great cost to taxpayers and little benefit to anyone except a small number of fat cats who milk the system for all it's worth.