America is chock full of these types.
IMO, any "spiritual" community that owns real estate should at least
pay state property tax, if not federal income tax.
Perhaps at a lower rate than non "spiritual" communities, but still pay something.
In recognition that those communities however isolated do use infrastructure paid for and maintained by state and federal and city governments.
Search and rescue if you and your family or community get in trouble at your ashram and need evacuation from danger.
These are just some of the tax supported services that we rely on these days.
Time for the spiritual entities to lose tax exemption and contribute to the cost, instead of us unevolved types paying tax whilte the gurus we indirectly support despise us while taking our dollars, pounds, euros.
Passports and representation/advocacy for endangered citizens in foreign territories.
As in what happens when a reckless American missionary goes into a known hostile area to preach? Who comes to the rescue if they are jailed and threatened with the death penalty?
The secular tax supported US govenment, thats who.
Services and materials paid for by secular tax payers:
Farm, food, pharmaceuticals and restaurant inspection
State examination and certification that physicians, lawyers, mental health professionals, hairdressers, cooks, food handlers actually *know what they are doing."
Without your state government being on the watch, testing licensing and keeping
records, anyone could claim he or she is doctor of medicine. Anyone. Or a dentist.
Pause a moment and imagine your predicament if you had to go to the dentist and anyone with a pair of pliers could claim to be a dentist,
\
That injection of novocaine the real dentist gives you - you and the dentist can be reasonably sure thanks to the tax supported FDA, that that novocaine ampule
actually contains novocaine solution that is free from germs that could kill you and there is a precise concentration of novocaine so that you get just enough to go numb, without the dose being so high that you get an overdose with nasty
side effects.
Without a multitude of tax supported safety precautions, every dentist visit would be a hellscape.
More services paid for by secular tax payers:
Scheduled inspection and competence/safety certifcation for schools, universities, hospitals, nursing homes, etc.
Public health
Highways
Airports and airfields
Fire, Police, Emergency Medical services
Postal Service
Public Health
Disaster Response
Safety Inspection
radio/telephone/water, gas and sewage disposal
Defence of territorial boundaries
IMO, any "spiritual" community that owns real estate should at least
pay state property tax, if not federal income tax.
Perhaps at a lower rate than non "spiritual" communities, but still pay something.
In recognition that those communities however isolated do use infrastructure paid for and maintained by state and federal and city governments.
Search and rescue if you and your family or community get in trouble at your ashram and need evacuation from danger.
These are just some of the tax supported services that we rely on these days.
Time for the spiritual entities to lose tax exemption and contribute to the cost, instead of us unevolved types paying tax whilte the gurus we indirectly support despise us while taking our dollars, pounds, euros.
Passports and representation/advocacy for endangered citizens in foreign territories.
As in what happens when a reckless American missionary goes into a known hostile area to preach? Who comes to the rescue if they are jailed and threatened with the death penalty?
The secular tax supported US govenment, thats who.
Services and materials paid for by secular tax payers:
Farm, food, pharmaceuticals and restaurant inspection
State examination and certification that physicians, lawyers, mental health professionals, hairdressers, cooks, food handlers actually *know what they are doing."
Without your state government being on the watch, testing licensing and keeping
records, anyone could claim he or she is doctor of medicine. Anyone. Or a dentist.
Pause a moment and imagine your predicament if you had to go to the dentist and anyone with a pair of pliers could claim to be a dentist,
\
That injection of novocaine the real dentist gives you - you and the dentist can be reasonably sure thanks to the tax supported FDA, that that novocaine ampule
actually contains novocaine solution that is free from germs that could kill you and there is a precise concentration of novocaine so that you get just enough to go numb, without the dose being so high that you get an overdose with nasty
side effects.
Without a multitude of tax supported safety precautions, every dentist visit would be a hellscape.
More services paid for by secular tax payers:
Scheduled inspection and competence/safety certifcation for schools, universities, hospitals, nursing homes, etc.
Public health
Highways
Airports and airfields
Fire, Police, Emergency Medical services
Postal Service
Public Health
Disaster Response
Safety Inspection
radio/telephone/water, gas and sewage disposal
Defence of territorial boundaries