Editor:
As we all know, governments of all levels love to squeeze more and more money from us, the middle-class taxpayers, and waste huge amounts on the most insane things they can think of.
Just think senators, TransLink, advertising to promote themselves, expense accounts and pensions for life for government employees.
Did I forget fancy hotels, fancy restaurants with fancy drinks, fancy travel, whether for personal or government-related purposes…?
Hmm, the list goes on and on.
Budget frugality only enters the governmental mindset when the money we pay them is to be handed out again. Think veterans, transportation, housing…
Most of us have learned along the way that there is no such thing as a free lunch – apart from the lunches for government, of course.
And yet there actually are some free lunches for us, to wit:
We can all frequent emergency rooms for whatever frivolous reason at no direct cost – though I am not including people who are really in need of emergency treatment.
We can all borrow books, movies, music etc. and use computers from our many, many libraries at no cost.
Two good potential resources to think of when government needs even more money for public transport perhaps? Certainly cheaper and more acceptable than having to pay exorbitant amounts of money in property taxes, property transfer taxes, gasoline taxes, liquor taxes and so-called luxury taxes?
If there really is no such thing as a free lunch:
• Why not have any and all users of walk-in clinics pay $1 or $2 per visit to use the clinic?
• Why not have all library users pay $5 or $10 annually to borrow whatever we want from the library?
Two sources of income that should seem very reasonable to the poor and the not-so-poor and yet would result in a steady and accumulating income for our wasteful governments! And a heck of a lot more creative than adding more to taxes yet again on what we buy to eat, drink, move to and live in.
M.M. Keij, Surrey