Re: Editorial of May 11 “A taxing debate worth having.”
After reading and contemplating the discussion on the taxes as “the law of the land” and the article regarding the tax evader’s issues, I cannot help but to respond to the focus of what our tax dollars actually go towards in our society.
When I follow daily news reports about the federal and provincial economic cutbacks of our social programs, First Nations transfers, arts foreign aid, charities, schools, medical services, department of oceans and fisheries, science/environmental research and the privatization of national parks (to name a few), I do find it disingenuous to claim that our tax dollars are indeed providing said services.
It also seems that politicians who are voted in by the taxpayers are sometimes caught using our monies for personal expenses while in office. And are also accused of supporting (a form of social welfare) the abuse of the land and the very social fibre of this country by large corporations (i.e. tax breaks).
However there seems to be no economic shortages for the war machine which grinds on endlessly. Perhaps those who courageously withhold their tax dollars are sometimes trying to make a statement as to where their money is actually being used. Something we have no control over as citizens.
It is not a democratic right to actively participate in our society to help create the kind of world in which 99 per cent of us would like to live and work in to make it a better place for everyone?
As we are whittled down to the barest of bones with poverty, homelessness and hunger on our streets, as the land/air and water become increasingly degraded by capital exploitation, as we pay more and more to live off plastic money... we are to believe this is for our benefit?
Personally, I think not.
So please don’t feed us illusions of freedom and well being. Feed us the truth. Isn’t that the final option of democracy?
J. Wallace
Nelson