Thanksgiving: the power of myth

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Americans mythologise Thanksgiving.  Many know they are doing so; even more do not.
The Pilgrims didn’t call themselves Pilgrims for starters.  The were overwhelmingly not Puritan and they were not really persecuted at all, just annoyed at the Church of England and its bishops. They did leave England for religious reasons, but left Holland of their own free will. Half of them didn’t survive the first winter and there was little to be thankful for.  There were no turkeys in Massachusetts at the time, no cranberries (inedible without the sugar that was only available a century later). There was no pecan pie or sweet potatoes, and what they survived on was probably racoon and beaver meat, with some  squash and beans.  The “Pilgrims” never celebrated by feasting in any case;  they celebrated by fasting. The myth has chiefly been created by writers and painters.

More importantly, the first permanent English settlement  was at Jamestown, not Plymouth Rock, and the first Thanksgiving was held at Berkeley Plantation, Virginia.  Does it matter?  Probably not, except for Virginians, of whom my own wife is one.  Had the South won the Civil War, the first Thanksgiving, held at Shirley Plantation, Virginia, would rightly be getting the attention.

From an Epicurean point of view we should approve of any American holiday of any sort whatsoever, because the American  worker gets scandalously little time off.  This is all in the aid of “productivity”. Actually, American  workers would be more productive if they had a Thanksgiving holiday once a month. Happy Thanksgiving!

Tax fiddles

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In the last financial year, 2014, Facebook paid less tax than an average UK worker would pay.  The social network’s UK operation paid  £4,327  in corporation tax.  An average UK worker earning £26,500 would pay £5,393,  a combination of income tax and national insurance payments.

Meanwhile they spent more than £35m (!)  giving their UK-based staff bonuses for doing the jobs they are paid to do,  producing a UK pre-tax “loss” of £28.5m, and a tax bill of just a few thousand pounds.  Their international headquarters is  in Dublin, where corporation tax is about half that of the UK. A company statement says: “We are compliant with UK tax law and in fact all countries where we have employees and offices. We continue to grow our business activities in the UK.”  (How do they keep a straight face, these public relations people?)  (BBC website)

In a rational world (an Epicurean world) there would be no race to the bottom when it comes to tax rates.  Companies should contribute to the economies they operate in. Period. Moreover, if a corporation is a “person”, as defined by the dismal Supreme Court, it ought to pay tax at the same rate as individuals, for the benefit of all.  The Chancellor George Osborne is planning a new tax for any company that moves its UK profits overseas, which is good news, if ironic – it is the conservatives who usually go on about low taxes for corporations, and these competing national tax rates are the result.

Montaigne: words of the wise

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“Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.”  (Montaigne)

Thus can a person who thinks himself fit to be President of the United States can actually propose building a huge wall to keep out Mexicans  when there are more Mexicans leaving the country than entering it (overwhelmed by possible examples, I pick just one for the sake of brevity.  Dodgson, contemplating Alice, would have had a field day in Wonderland).

 

Reducing the number of wars?

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A study of 186 hunter-gatherer cultures found that when men are involved in the care of their own infants the cultures do not make war.

This greater involvement of men with their babies may eventually contribute to a more peaceful world. It would, if true of “advanced” nations, be very much in the spirit of Epicureanism.

The Age of Monopoly

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The United States is in the middle of a huge consolidation of big companies in a wide range of industries: beer, health insurance, food and air travel to mention just four industries.  Only four airlines now control 70% of air travel; the biggest five commercial banks hold half the nation’s bank assets; Expedia- Orbitz and Priceline control all online travel vendors, as so on, adinfinitum.

I remember meeting, through a neighbour, a senior staff member of the Anti-Trust Department of the US government.  When I hinted, with a friendly smile,  that I thought perhaps he and his colleagues should be more active (cheeky!) he turned away and ignored me.  But I was right, and Obama has done a dire job (no job at all) in reining back the goliaths, the banks being the most obvious case of all, followed closely by health insurers.   None of the huge mega-mergers are being challenged, ss far as I know.    Frightened of their power, of being accused of being anti- business?  It was a Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, who originally tackled the huge 19th Century monopolies; now we have them back, assisted by a Democrat!