Taxes

They say, "there is nothing certain except death and taxes".  Which prompts the questions, Who are "they"? And why do they spend so much of their time making statements of the bleeding obvious?

As you might have guessed from the introduction tax time has rolled around again.  That time when decent citizens pin down a feebly protesting federal government and force money into its reluctant hands to be spent for the benefit of all.  In response the government, well, no doubt it does its best.  Somehow through the layers of bureaucracy, inefficiency, halfwit policy decisions and the half baked implementation of halfwit policy decisions enough money trickles through to ensure that the nation stays, if not afloat then at least wallowing just below the surface like a water logged hulk.

From time to time no doubt well meaning politicians vow to eradicate waste and reduce government expenditure.  This is a noble ambition and should be encouraged if only to keep the waste and government sprawl to within manageable limits.  We shouldn't expect too much of it though.  After all what is the only tool the government has to reduce waste and government expenditure?  Government itself.  And since the government is representative of the country and in a sense can be considered the country any time it tries to do anything to itself or for the country we are largely in the same position as someone attempting surgery on themselves.  You might be able to splint the occasional broken bone but I really wouldn't recommend a heart transplant.

It wasn't always like this.  In days gone by (no one with any sense would call them "the good old days") governments spent little and generally earned less.  Nationwide taxation was limited to a handful of indirect imposts and any major policy decision (such as wars) tended to be preceded by an unedifying scramble as kings (depending on their level of support) demanded, requested or begged their governments for permission to raise extra revenue.  Naturally if the king was an absolute monarch he could simply take what he wanted and if his aristocracy were sufficiently cowed he might even get away with that once or twice before they introduced him to the concept of regicide as a tool for governmental reform.

Of course the method that the governments of those days used to keep taxes low or non existent was to spend very little.  Health, sewers, roads, welfare, education, adequate policing and subsidies for sport and the arts were never really contemplated much less attempted.  Some of the slack was picked up by the church who levied their own version of taxes to help pay for it but basically the government got by on very little by doing very little.

Nowadays our government soaks a fair bit of tax revenue out of its citizens both corporate and individual.  In return we get a bloated, shambolic bureaucracy which nevertheless manages to do all of the above and more.  Not bad for someone performing surgery on themselves really.  In a kind light you can hardly see the scars.