Rome's bachelor tax

[Drox]

I haven't been able to find much credible results on Google, so could someone tell me about this?

Apparently they implemented a bachelor tax as a response to the decline in marriage, but that's all I've heard.

[Ebola]

Time frame?

[Agathokakological]

What exactly are you wanting to know about it?

A favorite strategy of governments to encourage population growth and raise money at the same time. Julius Caesar tried it in 18 B.C. The English imposed it in 1695. The Russians under Peter the Great used it in 1702, as did the Missouri legislature in 1820. The Spartans of ancient Greece didn’t care about the money—they preferred public humiliation. Bachelors in Sparta were required to march around the public market in wintertime stark naked, while singing a song making fun of their unmarried status.

That's all I can give you without specific questions.

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/04/19/what-wont-they-tax/

[Drox]

I just wanted a general overview of it, out of curiosity. How much the tax was, who qualified as a bachelor, if there was resistance/protests, what commentators thought of it back then and now, how well it worked, etc.

[Agent 008]

What exactly are you wanting to know about it?


That's all I can give you without specific questions.

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/04/19/what-wont-they-tax/

Good link.

Just goes to show how when a tax, or a regulation, or a law is intoduced, it is so much more difficult to get rid of it later on.

These things need an expiry date.

[Agathokakological]

Good link.

Just goes to show how when a tax, or a regulation, or a law is intoduced, it is so much more difficult to get rid of it later on.

These things need an expiry date.

There's no such thing as expiry dates when the government is making more money. Income tax wasn't supposed to stay for a long time....

[Agent 008]

There's no such thing as expiry dates when the government is making more money. Income tax wasn't supposed to stay for a long time....

Yep, exactly.