communism can work. it did in israel.

once you start taking taxes then a boundary has been crossed. and it's a boundary that needs to be crossed.

lets examine when taxes paid for the government, army and nothing else. the industrial revolution period of the 19th century.

it was a time of cholera. they streets and wells were filled with sewage. people were dying on an epedemic scale because noone cared about sewage. it wasn't the governments or councils job. and noone was going to pay for it out of the goodness of their heart. and the people most affected by it were too poor to pay anyone to do it. and alot of people died to the government saw sense and ended the madness and with the help of brunel built a sewer system that is the one we still use today. and noone is dying of cholera.

in the end government intervention ended the cholera epidemic.

it was paid for out of acquired revenue but brought an idea forward of government intervention.

then the country went to war (i can't remember if it was the boer or crimean war). and lots of the working class went to sign up. and were turned away. they weren't suitable, underweight, louse ridden, mal nourished with no intelligenced. the government was lacking in working class troops not because they didn't want to sign up but because they just weren't fit enough.

a country without an army would have been silly. so the government at the time had an idea. it was the foundations of the welfare state. sick pay and access to a doctor, injury pay, education, child labour laws, the end of the work houses, pensions etc. and the next war the country went into the great war. we won and had no lack of troops.

other problems were in that time frame. housing. at the time when the people were flocking to the cities from the farms they were working in factories. working in factories was a bit like selling your soul. though it had been practiced before in the rural environment it has harsher in the cities. as a factory worker you basicly belonged to the factory owner. the food you bought was from him, the house you lived in was his, the water you drank was from his well (see above). and the easiest way to make money is too keep money.

so the houses were . and i mean . single rooms for the whole family. no bed, no gas, no running water, no furniture, a single room. and not a big room either. no ventilation and no heat. food was horrible and often posinous (lead in the bread to make it weigh more was common as was adding dyes).

this of course was a bit of a problem since the government now realised that it's duty was to the people (especially if you need them to fight wars). and so they thought the slums needed to go. and after 1918 many did. "homes for heroes". they knocked down the slum housing and built council houses. fully gassed and with running water, heat, ventilation, windows, electricity. the full works. the plan was never fully completed due to an economic down turn and lack of materials for such a job. but it was the start.

on the topic of factories. working conmditions. working conditions were not great. many maimings, removal of body parts and injuries resulted. cotton mills ended up with people cutting hands stuck in places. children crawled around the back of the machines removing fluff and sometimes were crushed or raised their head at the wrong moment. but there was no law against it. fine to do what you wanted. such instances of people collecting sewage in city centres for fertilizer in large heaps was common practice too.

the government then looked at this and thought that this was never gonna be a good thing. people were dying and getting ill and this was not a great looking thing for the worlds most powerful nation. and all those damned european countries were being nice to their people now and had democracy and this made britain look bad. that and less people meant less taxes and less army. so things had to be done. and laws were changed. no child labour, employers were no responsible, and the first health and safety and environmental health laws came in. no more dumping stuff in the street either.

so what else did the government need to do? education. badly educated children were not good for the economy. so off to school they went. mothers needed care when they were unable to work. babies need extra money. a few other extra's.

alot of this was also out of self interest for the government. the labour movement and unions were gaining support and the working class were gaining the vote. appeasing them meant keeping in power.

but it saved lives. could be why we won the war. and was the foundations for modern britain.

and modern britain kept me alive and educated me.