The liberal professor who explained taxes with a beer

How a liberal professor taught his tax burden class: with a glass of beer

With a small beer and a glass, the economist explained how much the state takes. "This is what it steals from me in direct taxes," he said as he poured a splash. "This, in indirect taxes," another splash. "This, in excise duties," a third. He held up the bottle, showed how much was left, downed it in one gulp and wrapped up before the bar crowd.

The man was a university professor, a civil servant by day and a liberal at the bar. One of the first names in the liberal orbit alongside Rallo. His anti-state rhetoric didn't stay in the classroom: he was seen most often in the bars around campus, half drunk, performing his fiscal beer routine for anyone who would watch.

Behind the anecdote lies a school of thought that holds the state is nothing more than a power machine. "A group of powerful people who control a territory," one commentator defines it while praising Bastos, a liberal-conservative he considers one of the few who understand that mafia-like nature.

The scene explains, better than any treatise, why the tax burden rhetoric strikes a chord in certain circles: it boils down to a glass of beer. But it also portrays its limits: the loudest critic of the state can be, at the same time, a civil servant and a professor. The question about sanchinflas' biggest mistake, which gave the exchange its title, fades away among the foam and the insults. The next time someone asks you for a verdict on that management, order a beer and watch.