Editor, The News:
Re: lncome tax still biggest ripoff (Sidewinder, May 8).
I don’t know where Sandy Macdougall’s head is, but wherever it is, it’s dark.
The only comments of any relevance were those concerning the unnecessary complexity in the process of tax filing. The rest is an indication of the precise location of his head.
One reason why the allies won the Second World War was that the top 85 per cent marginal tax rate prevented people like Mr. Macdougall, and those of the present economic/power elite, from bleeding the war effort dry.
Thanks to that continued tax rate the years following, through to the 1970s, were, in North America, the most generally prosperous the world has seen; the possible exception being present day Norway and perhaps Finland and Sweden. Compare the prosperity of the Scandinavian countries, where taxes are considered a contribution to the general well being of society, to those of Greece, Italy and Spain, countries where the attitude towards taxation is more in line with Mr. Macdougall’s thinking.
Perhaps the reason income tax was retained after the First World War was that it worked; not only as a revenue source, but also as an egalitarian measure that addressed the inequities of Victorian/Dickensian, Britain, and the threat of Marxist revolution.
Mr. Macdougall refers to government as if it were some Alien presence. Perhaps he would like to toss our democratic system in favour of corporate domination and rule? That sort of government would amount to a multi-facetted communist system with no representation other than that of shareholder.
Mandt Lofthaug
Maple Ridge