Damn the man! Save the empire (I loved that movie)
Damn the man ! And when I say that I’m referring to the taxman.
I’ve never been one of those people who didn’t want to pay taxes, I gladly pay taxes to preserve certain aspects of life that I think are crucial to any society. First among them, socialised medicine and health care. Coverage should be universal, whether or not you’re wealthy shouldn’t influence whether or not you have the right to a heart transplant if you need one. Everybody should have access to health care, and that should include dental health. Social security is another one. Everyone can come across a bad patch in their life, and in countries as rich as the ones I’ve lived in there is no reason to have people starving or homeless, none whatsoever. (Of course some people will have you believe that people choose to be homeless, and while I find that very hard to believe, if someone can ever provide proof of this then I’ll reconsider)
Having said that, the taxation level here in France is just too high. In addition to the taxes we pay for social security, health care and retirement, which they don’t actually call taxes here, there is income tax, tax on your TV, habitation tax if you rent property, another tax if you own property, tax for removal of garbage, and I’m sure there are more that I can’t think of at the moment. There has to be some way to cut government spending without cutting necessary spending. I work for an international company, and we manage to cut our spending without laying people off or reducing income.
Did anyone see the movie “Dave”? In the movie he has to find funds to save a project and he does so by calling a friend who’s an accountant and they go through the minutiae of the budget and cut what’s necessary (In the movie I believe there was some talk about incredibly expensive toilets or some such) It’s naïve and just a little unrealistic, but I’m sure going through government spending in detail would reveal many similar things here. And if they did they could either give a little of it back to the general population, or even better spend it on something worthwhile, like foreign aid, or housing subsidies, or taking care of the impoverished suburbs.
Well, that’s my venting done for the day. All in all I should probably be grateful I have to pay taxes, and be happy I won’t go broke if I ever have to go to the hospital for something.
I’ve never been one of those people who didn’t want to pay taxes, I gladly pay taxes to preserve certain aspects of life that I think are crucial to any society. First among them, socialised medicine and health care. Coverage should be universal, whether or not you’re wealthy shouldn’t influence whether or not you have the right to a heart transplant if you need one. Everybody should have access to health care, and that should include dental health. Social security is another one. Everyone can come across a bad patch in their life, and in countries as rich as the ones I’ve lived in there is no reason to have people starving or homeless, none whatsoever. (Of course some people will have you believe that people choose to be homeless, and while I find that very hard to believe, if someone can ever provide proof of this then I’ll reconsider)
Having said that, the taxation level here in France is just too high. In addition to the taxes we pay for social security, health care and retirement, which they don’t actually call taxes here, there is income tax, tax on your TV, habitation tax if you rent property, another tax if you own property, tax for removal of garbage, and I’m sure there are more that I can’t think of at the moment. There has to be some way to cut government spending without cutting necessary spending. I work for an international company, and we manage to cut our spending without laying people off or reducing income.
Did anyone see the movie “Dave”? In the movie he has to find funds to save a project and he does so by calling a friend who’s an accountant and they go through the minutiae of the budget and cut what’s necessary (In the movie I believe there was some talk about incredibly expensive toilets or some such) It’s naïve and just a little unrealistic, but I’m sure going through government spending in detail would reveal many similar things here. And if they did they could either give a little of it back to the general population, or even better spend it on something worthwhile, like foreign aid, or housing subsidies, or taking care of the impoverished suburbs.
Well, that’s my venting done for the day. All in all I should probably be grateful I have to pay taxes, and be happy I won’t go broke if I ever have to go to the hospital for something.
posted by Annette at 7:54 PM
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