Thaddeus Tremayne may appear to have gone off his medications when he proposed this:
I think it behooves us to begin spreading this idea: that people who work in the public sector should be exempt from having to pay tax. All tax.
But he really does have a valid and interesting point:
No, what I am proposing is the stripping away of a fig-leaf that disguises the very important distinction between tax-payers and tax-consumers.
Currently, only those who earn their living in the private or voluntary sector are tax-payers and while public sector employees do file tax returns and, on the face of it, pay their taxes too, this is a mere bookkeeping fiction. They are the recipients of tax, adding nothing to the public purse. The number of people who fail to understand this distinction, holding instead that “we are all taxpayers” is alarmingly high. By forcing the public sector to lead tax-free lives, we make their true status not just clearer but undeniable.
Consider the meme-spreading to have started.
I would mention this to Ottawa Tech Writer Guy, but his wife works for Revenue Canada and could probably have us all killed. Or worse, audited.
Comment by Lickmuffin — July 29, 2009 @ 19:23