Word: firmness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Some ruling socialists take this rhetoric seriously. In radically socialist South Yemen, civil servants' salaries have been cut and luxury goods banned. Under Julius Nyerere's firm socialist hand, Tanzania has been turned into one of the world's most egalitarian societies. The steeply progressive personal taxes of most social democracies, meanwhile, are a way of redistributing wealth...
Despite all this diversity, socialists of whatever stripe have several ideals in common. One is the belief that if the means of production remain under the complete control of private owners, the worker will be exploited. Another is a firm commitment to egalitarianism, which the conservative historian Robert Strausz-Hupé calls "the strongest single element of modern society...
...been Labor's method of building Norway's socialism, which the party defines as "equality among all individuals and groups." Steeply progressive personal taxes (50% for a couple earning $30,000) have helped to level incomes. Says Christian Erlandsen, managing director of an Oslo auto parts firm: "After taxes the difference between me and the lowest-paid guy at this company is not very great. You can't look at just income; you must look at other values. We have our cabins, our spare time. What may be most important to me is my feeling of safety...
Business earnings are also heavily taxed: 30% by the national government and 20% by municipalities. Explains Erlandsen: "The highest cost my firm has is its tax cost. To reduce our tax burden, we share profits with our employees or reinvest them somehow." One of the most common means of sharing is to give employees valuable but tax-exempt "perks," such as trips to mountain resorts and the use of company-owned cars and houses...
Whyte said anyone who tries to tell the manager or workers in an employee-owned firm that it should be operated "like a private factory" is not recognizing the fundamental nature of the changes that have taken place...