It's a tough job, it's pretty thankless, and nobody likes you because your job is to nag them about doing paperwork (or ePaperwork, as the case may be) and nobody likes paperwork.
I earn some decent bank for what I do. I'm not bragging but I can pay my bills AND go to a movie once a week if I want to. I live the high life.
And for that high life I pay some tax. Actually, to be fair, I pay a FUCK LOAD of tax. I don't have a lot of deductions, so I really pay my fair share, and a little extra to make up for the folks that don't earn what I do.
I actually pay enough in taxes to cover the disability payments by sister receives from the government because she can't work. Ever. She's been on disability just about her entire adult life, and will be on disability for the rest of her life. And the taxes I pay cover her government payment which keeps her, just barely, above the poverty line.
It doesn't cover any of her care, her doctors appointments, her medications, her psychiatrist, the many many times she ends up in the emergency room, that's something the government pretty much gives her for free under Medicare. And she'll probably get even more services made available to her under DisabilityCare.
And I pay taxes to cover that. So do you.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, a person I like to quote any time taxation is in the media, said something really fucking smart:
"Taxes are the price we pay for a civilised society"
What you get for the taxes you pay are things you enjoy. You get to drive on the road. You get to have a road. You get footpaths that are safe to walk on. You get streetlights. You get people who come to your house to talk to your neighbours when the music is too loud. You get cops to protect you. You get firemen to save your house. And you get an ambulance at your door if you need help.
Those are just a few of the things you get for the taxes you pay. There are hundreds and hundreds more.
And soon, you'll pay (if you live in Australia) 0.5% more into the Medicare Levy that you did before.
That 0.5% equates to $250 annually if you earn $50,000.
If you earn $100,000 it's only $500 a year.
If you're an average Australian you probably earn about $50,000, or a bit less, so you're going to be stung $4.80 or so a week.
That's an extra large cup of coffee.
2l of milk.
A small piece of rump steak, if you're inclined towards steak.
A loaf of fresh bread from the bakery (the fancy one).
What you get for losing that $5 a week is the chance to help my sister to have a better life.
The chance to help many thousands of Australians have a better life.
You miss one coffee and you give someone a chance to have critical medical help that they probably can't afford on their own.
Why on earth would you begrudge that small amount of money to give someone the opportunity to not have to choose between eating and getting the medicine that keeps them going?
In this society the people that can afford to pay taxes help the people that can't.
And you know what? It's a fucking privilege to be able to help those people, so if you don't like paying the extra $5 a week maybe you need to spend a week with someone whose life will be changed by this $5 so you can understand just how lucky you are.
No comments:
Post a Comment