A couple of years ago, under its despotic leader Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus introduced the idea of a ‘social parasite’ tax, where an unemployed person has to pay an annual fee for not-working, or risk detention or other sanctions. The Presidential Decree #3 (2015) “decree against social parasites” imposed this unemployment tax on people who work (according to official record) fewer than 183 days a year and so do not take part in the “financing of the state”. The tax is the equivalent of US$250.
