In today’s global economy, a company that provides a successful product or service can earn billions of dollars a year. Governments steal a greedy glance and ask how they can get their “fair share” of this money. The latest example is the EU attempting to create “tax harmonization” among its members as it imposes a digital tax on “Big Tech” firms.
The proposal is currently stalled, as more fiscally responsible nations like Ireland object to the EU’s plan to tax tech firms’ revenue rather than their profits. In a new essay for Religion & Liberty Transatlantic, Ángel Manuel García Carmona writes that the EU seeks to force all its member states to apply a uniform tax and regulatory system to assure there is no escaping the grasping hand of government. However, it is precisely in lower tax nations like the U.S. and South Korea that technological advancements take place.
He writes:
Proper human flourishing cannot come from nations following Machiavellian policies to maximize their concentrated economic power. Development of technological industries must open new avenues for entrepreneurship, which aims to serve the needs of our fellow citizens. People may serve society by using these new platforms to discover new ways to boost productivity, make life easier for disabled people, improve medical procedures, and numerous other fronts.
A lighter economic burden, and a less restrictive environment, facilitates technological advancement and yields new discoveries to benefit all God’s creation.
(Photo credit: Public domain.)
