Our taxes went up at the beginning of this current year--2013. As a result, our disposable income will be about $1,250.00 less this year than it was last. It may not be an enormous increase but it means we will have to adjust our spending downward in order to compensate. I haven't complained about it because what good would it do? Taxpayers are always given the same, coy answer. They are told resolutely that "for the greater good" they must learn to tighten their belts: Economize, economize, economize. And any suggestion, even the tiniest hint, that the tax collector, himself, should likewise economize--even a little, results in immediate shrieks of pain!

It all reminds me of a story Stephen Fry once told:

In the Second World War they would have people form the Ministry of Labour going roundchecking on everybody and particularly on the big estates, to see if all these people, or least some of them, might be released for essential war work. So they went to Chatsworth, the Duke of Devonshire's estate. They brought a stopwatch and clipboard then checked everybody as they went about performing their duties. Eventually they had an interview with the Duke, and they said; "Well Your Grace, we can understand that you need forty seven gardeners and thirteen under gardeners and you need grooms and you need chauffeurs and you need upstairs maids and downstairs maids and in between maids and laundry room maids, and still room maids and kitchen maids and nursemaids and housemaids and parlour maids. Andwe dounderstand that you need a boy to scrape the knives and boots and that you need a butler and four footmen and an under butler. But we wonder if some economy might be made. Do you, uh...um, does Your Grace necessarily need two pastry cooks? To which he apparently replied; "Confound it all! Can't a man have a biscuit?"

I suppose it's just too outlandish to expect the tax collector to forego an occasional biscuit. Taxpayers are told that $2 million dollars for a single golf outing in Florida is all very reasonable--and even necessary. And, who knows, perhaps it is. But, taxpayers might feel a little better about tightening their own belts if the tax collectors weren't constantly loosening theirs.