Below is an excerpt from 1965 written by Barack Hussein Obama I in the East Africa Journal giving his thoughts on a paper written by the African Government on the “Socialization of Africa”. He was chosen out of many to be published.

“There is a small minority of people, and worse still, on a racial basis, who have high incomes and who can afford to save, but no country can afford to rely on one group or a small segment of society to do all the saving. Nor is all of this saving being invested in this country. Some are sent abroad in forms of dividents and for many other reasons. What is important is to find means by which we can redistribute our economic gains to the benefit of all and at the same time be able to channel some of these gains to future production.”

“This is the governments obligation: it should have come out with a plan in the paper to achieve this. The government recognizes that each pound saved can generate 3 pounds in both foriegn aid and assistance. Is not this the reason the government should tax the rich more so as to generate high tax surplus?”

“Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income soo long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed.”

“Assuming that development and the achievement of high per capita is a benefit to society as a whole, I do not see why the government can not tax those who have more and syphon some of those revenues into savings which can be utilized in investment for future development thereby reducing our reliance on foriegn aid”