Tax, Whither And Rebirth

Where I live, I'm only allowed to water my lawn every second day. Water levels are low so I had no real qualms with it given I don't generally water my grass too much. I'm not a nut about grass like some people are.

Last night my friend was telling me that the city has added further restrictions saying we can't do it all; including washing our cars outside. But I can do it inside my garage since they "can't see it." Not yet anyway.

As we were discussing, it won't be long before the municipality begins to monitor our water usage inside our homes. A water tax meter will likelybe imposed somewhere down the line. Montreal is already doing it so it's only a matter of time we follow suit.

I don't know what it'll look like but if you shower for ten minutes and the government wants you to use seven minutes worth, they may tax you for the over usage. I'm just guessing.

If we tax most things for consumption, because remember boys and girls we have to tax to discourage an activity or habit that the state doesn't like, why not water? I mean, we've been nailed with increases in bus fares (all the while politicians beat us silly telling us to take public transit), gas (because gas is mean to the environment) and food as well (hey, watch your sugar intake - I have a story to tell later about this).

These are all activities we HAVE to engage in, and if you're taxes go up while wages freeze in a difficult economic environment, then you have less in your pocket. Don't worry, as one Montreal city councillor said, we won't go to the "poor house." What a fooltool.

Another area where the city of Montreal has absolutely knocked people off is with property taxes. They ARE INSANE. We own property in Montreal and the taxes the city takes from owners is essentially thievery. What the heck are they doing with all that money? Oh yeah, the oversized public sector.

We've had to let a tenant out of his lease because he felt he couldn't make a go of his business (in a high profile area) and couldn't possibly pay for the taxes he was responsible for. So we've had to drastically readjust our rent downwards (apparently the higher you charge rent the higher the taxes; because we're, you know, communists) in an effort to attract someone else into the locale just so that the taxes are bearable. Less rental income or less taxes? Pick your poison.

Oh, by the way, the Tremblay administration increased property taxes during hard economic times. I can't tell you how many times small business people looking for rent space have said they're getting reamed by taxes. Communism by other means. God forbid he actually goes straight to the source: A massive civil service and unions sector that's crippling us.

Then they wonder why people evade taxes. People will evade the portion they feel is not entitled to go to the state. Simple as that.

It's no better down south. The Americans elected a leader who's proving to be a rank amateur with dated economic notions. His shtick has already wore thin as it should.

To me, the West is already dead. The rise is on the East. The insane insistence on taxing ourselves to death is only hastening that process. Eventually, we will whither and hit a dark age. Only when the people who taxed us into oblivion to preserve impossible services and those activists who lobby for higher taxes die off will a future generation down the road turn around and say, "Ok, this is fucken retarded let's spur true economic growth and innovation free of excessive Leviathanian measures. Let's start by reducing the size of the bacterial civil service. Who were those bozos from 2010 anyway?"

Of course, I'm just guessing. To some people all this makes perfect sense and increases are only proportional to our standard of living. After all, the saying goes, do you want to forego our social welfare state?

I fear that we'll end up in a situation like in Europe where not only is the cost of maintaining a welfare state no longer feasible, owning property (to serve as a pension among other things) won't even be worth it because the income earned won't even cover the original cash outlay on investment. In a sense, the state has the people exactly where it wants them: In a corner.

Then again, I'm not sure that's the main goal of government.  Is it really in their best interest to create a culture of dependency?

Death and taxes will one day be one and the same.

***

I mentioned sugar earlier. The other day I stood outside Wal-Mart (there was a sale on a particular Barbie my chirpily verbose daughter wanted) with my mother in law (I love my mother-in-law, I love my mother-in-law) and observed the amount of over weight people coming out. Perceptions and generalizations are a crazy thing and I could have sworn I had never seen so many of them around these parts. What I kept to myself, my mother-in-law remarked out loud. So often I hear Quebecers sneer about Americans in Plattsburgh being over weight. The truth is, Quebec is one of the most unhealthiest regions in Canada if not North America.We have the highest drop out rates, lowest percentage of people who exercise and highest who smoke. And we teach French poorly apparently.

We just happen to have good genes, I presume, on the weight thing.

It was taking long so we went in to look for the girls. As we stood by the cash we noticed a hideously dressed and equally frightfully looking couple pack their carriage with Doritos and Pepsi while talking to, what sounded (through a really thick Quebecois accent) to me as their kids. If I didn't know better they were buying a bag per kid and it didn't feel as though they were throwing a party.

If that was an American couple, I could imagine the comments. But they weren't. They were homegrown retards.

Point? What I just did, that is generalize, is all we do when we look on America. Conclusion? Those who live in glass houses shouldn't hurl stones.