Dialogue: How the taxpayer is being ripped

By GARTH GEORGE

The action of some schools in setting debt collectors on to parents who have not paid their "donations" towards the cost of their children's education is incontrovertible evidence of the contemptible depths to which our dollar-driven society has sunk.

It is also further evidence, if any were needed, of the way in which we, the taxpayers, are being ripped off and robbed blind by the Government.

And it proves once again what I have contended for years - that successive governments for nearly two decades have betrayed us by refusing to provide that for which they exist - defence of the nation, law and order, infrastructure, education for all, an adequate public health system and welfare services for those in genuine need.

We pay taxes so our children can receive a free education, yet we now see clearly that were not getting what we pay for. Those of us who have children in school are paying twice, plus GST, spending millions of already taxed dollars in school fees - some of which are illegal - and donations.

We pay taxes so that our universities can turn out graduates who will contribute to our society, yet they end up so debt-ridden they go overseas. And we read that businesses are spending more (tax-deductible dollars in this case) on the cost of running universities than the amount of our tax money the Government provides.

We pay taxes so we can have an adequate and modern roading system, yet the Government is about to demand another 4c a litre in petrol tax to pay for certain new and improved roads. Why? Because for decades the petrol tax - which was once dedicated entirely to roads - has been stolen and siphoned off into general funds.

Now, instead of rededicating the petrol tax - which is a little over 34c of our tax-paid money on every litre we buy - towards our roading needs, the Government proposes to increase it.

We pay taxes to provide us with a health service, yet we are faced with underpaid and understaffed hospitals, endless waiting lists, health boards in the red by millions of dollars and some of them having to raise loans from commercial sources to provide new facilities or to renovate old ones.

And, even worse, hundreds of thousands of us are paying huge health insurance premiums so we can be looked after properly when we need to be. And every time we use a service for which the insurer pays, it saves the Government money, probably hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Our premiums, including GST, are all paid in tax-paid dollars yet successive Governments have refused to entertain the idea of making health insurance premiums tax-deductible. That's blatant thievery.

We pay taxes to ensure our safety through the law-enforcement and justice systems, yet we have a police force that is so understaffed and under-resourced that it cannot do its job, suffers low morale and is becoming increasingly corrupt. So it assigns scores if not hundreds of officers to revenue-collecting duties to keep itself afloat - and the fines we are hit with are in tax-paid dollars, too.

The justice system is in disarray, with overcrowded courts and court lists, unconscionable delays in having cases heard, particularly civil matters, and too many inadequate judges sitting on benches they have no business occupying.

We pay taxes to ensure that our nation can defend itself against any external threat, real or potential, yet our Defence Force has been castrated by being deprived of an air combat wing in spite of us being offered a bunch of F-16s on terms more favourable than the arms industry has seen since the American lend-lease deal with the Britain in the Second World War.

Only the welfare system seems to be operating on all cylinders, spending our money at the rate of millions of dollars an hour. That's not surprising since a huge proportion of that money is being paid to people who are the authors of their own misfortunes and don't deserve a penny of our hard-earned tax dollars.

Meanwhile those who do deserve our charity - the sick, the elderly, the infirm, the unemployed - are paid a pittance. And, ironically, they pay tax on the tax that pays their benefits.

The most degrading thing about all this is that what we once knew as the public services are not services any more, but have been turned into businesses, infested with that strange breed of human beings called "CEOs" (or "COOs") and their even stranger offspring called "managers" and in which everything is seen in dollar terms rather than human terms.

I wonder how long it will be before we have to make a "donation" before a fire engine will turn up at our burning house?

* garth_george@nzherald.co.nz. This column will not appear next week.