And Your First Clue Was...?

From today's Coleman column:

I remember when cops were too busy to be tax collectors.

Huh?

Cops and courts have always been tax collectors. Since the first weasel-faced bureaucrat first invented the "Fine", and since bureaucrats we called "nobles" started needing to wrench money from the fyrds, villeins, knaves and burghers ("Happy To Pay For A Better Phoenecia, So I Don't Get Drawn And Quartered As An Example"), cops have been the long arm of the treasury.

So exactly how far back does Nick Coleman remember? Or, conversely, not?

Let's not call this kind of thing a surcharge. Let's call it by its real name: a rip-off.

Could it be that Coleman, through the most back-door of means, is finally getting it?

Let's see:

Regressive taxes disguised as user fees, assessments and surcharges fall most heavily on families whose budgets are stretched to the breaking point while politicians crow about cutting taxes.

All taxes always fall most heavily on someone or another; sales taxes on those who buy, income taxes on those who earn, property taxes on those with property.

Could it be that Nick is becoming a libertarian?

Posted by Mitch at May 4, 2005 04:49 AM | TrackBack