Poetry – Nobody likes Taxes

Nobody likes Taxes

Nobody likes taxes

But most of us like roads.

Without structure

Society implodes.

The schools are important

And we all like to be secure.

That’s what we have

The police and army for.

We like all our services

To run smooth as silk.

But moan about politicians

And people of their ilk.

We all want our freedom

But don’t like being bombed.

We expect the secret services

To stop us being wronged.

We don’t like to be controlled

Or our liberty constrained.

But we want all the terrorists

Locked up and contained.

No, we don’t like paying taxes

Until things start going wrong.

Then the daggers start coming out.

It doesn’t take too long.

Opher -25.11.2020

Once we were free and now we’re not. We have 68 million people crammed in this island. Most of them are OK, if a little awkward at times, but a minority are a real problem. We have thiefs, murderers, religious fanatics, rapists, scammers, bullies, violent idiots, crazy fools, paedophiles and obnoxious troublemakers. Without law and order we’d be in trouble.

We no longer live in little tribal groups where we can easily sort matters out. Even back then, when we could, there were always bands of brigands who rampaged around killing, raping and plundering. We had to build great walls around our cities to keep us safe.

We need to get around. We need an infrastructure – roads, train, air. It needs to be secure from the idiots.

We need safety, police and army. There are threats from inside and threats from outside. It’s sad.

We need laws, courts and justice to control the lunatics and violent people.

We need a health service to help us when we’re ill, a welfare system for those who fall on hard times, a pension system.

We need energy and water, sewage and garbage collection.

We need local services.

It needs organising and paying for.

If anything goes wrong we soon start to notice. It doesn’t take long.

It needs organising.

With 68 million that takes a lot of doing.

We don’t like interference. We want to be free.

I think it’s a question of balance.

We don’t like paying taxes but they are a necessary evil.

In Scandinavia, where the taxes are high, the standard of living is high, playgrounds, cycle paths, public baths, parks, great education, good housing, low crime. In the USA there are ghettos, poor education, an ignorant population and high crime rate, thugs for cops and armed militia.

I know which I prefer – a tolerant, liberal society with higher taxes.