The Political Landscape

I said in my earlier blog post that my two long term addictions are Making and Politics. I have now reclassified Making as a passion.

Politics for me is based on a deep-seated belief that society in general is not a just one, and that we can work to change it. In that respect it is also a passion.

The aspects of my actions re-politics that are in the category of addictions are: reading the newspaper every day - nowadays in the apps in my mobile phone (even if I am abroad or on holidays); watching the television news every day, sometimes more than once; listening to radio news bulletins in-between classical music when I work.

In this piece I tackle the controversial issue of TAX, which has been very much in the news recently: the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers revealed how the the rich stash their money in tax havens and avoid paying tax. And the US Senate has approved tax cuts that benefit principally corporations and the rich.

I say 'tax' is a misnomer. The word has bad connotations: it is interpreted as being obliged to pay some of one's hard-earned cash to the government. But that is a misunderstanding of the purpose of tax, which is to provide services to everybody in society. I list the main items our contributions go towards: Health, Education, Housing, Welfare, Police, Defence, Environment, and several more.

I believe the term 'tax' should be replaced by "Contributions to Society". And imagine what wonderful provision of services we could have if the rich and the multinationals did not continually avoid paying their due contributions!!!