Friday, November 21, 2008

A Bit of Freedom Would be Nice

A couple of thoughts, and I am not the first to say this, but I have never seen an answer: Why is it that I cannot make a private phone call unless I go to a call box and wear gloves? In Spain, and I believe in Britain as well, it is not possible to buy a phone without attaching the number to a name, address and NIF. The only reason for this can be that someone may want to know who we have called at any time, and the assumption is that they are perfectly entitled to know. Why is this assumption accepted by everyone? Why can I not talk to a friend, or try to sell something, or discuss business of some sort, or call a tart, without leaving a record somewhere? You are thinking you have nothing to hide, but neither do I; but I don't understand why anything I do is automatically the business of anyone.
This is not a personal complaint; it is general. And most people don't care because no one will have any reason to follow up what they do, but someone might, and you may never even know.

Unfair tax competition is surely a phrase that can only be uttered by those who do not understand what tax is, who believe that tax is a penalty that government legitimately imposes on anyone who dares to earn a living. Taxes, in the sense that they are legitimate at all, are needed to pay for those things that the public in general thinks necessary. The amount of tax paid depends on the demand on the public purse. The idea that tax rates can be a duty owed by one country to another is quite perverse. It is a symptom of fundamentalist socialism, and like all such ideas, will cost the rest of us a lot of heartache and a lot of money.

Why am I wrong? I would like to be wromg. I could sleep more easily if I knew we were all in good hands.

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