McCartney/Lennon on the absurdity of HST

When you think of the Beatles, you think of Great Britain in the sixties. When you think of Great Britain in the early sixties you think of bloated/wasteful government and rapacious levels of taxation. No doubt this motivated McCartney/Lennon to write their song of protest called The Taxman.

The lyrics are quite telling and disturbingly prescient, as they spoof about what government may next find an opportunity to tax, and read:

(if you drive a car, car;) - I’ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) - I’ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) - I’ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) - I'll tax your feet.

Well folks, welcome to overtaxed Britain of the early sixties, as we who live in the harsh Ontario climate are being faced with the absurdity only joked about by the Beatles of “if you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat”.

That’s a concept plagiarised directly by Dalton McGuinty’s into his song book on the HST......except his version reads: “When you get too cold - I’ll WILL tax your heat.”

Overtaking of consumers and their basic necessities of life (heat?), is exactly what Dalton McGuinty at the behest of Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty thinks is the right prescription for all that ails Ontario.

Is Dalton McGuinty so utterly naïve and misinformed about the real world as to not realize the effect this absurd HST tax will have on the blackmarket? Perhaps he might want to have a look at what percent of cigarettes are sold illegally to avert the tax burden on cigarettes. The market for Illegal cigarettes is only a harbinger of the enormity of the black market that will develop for virtually everything under the sun that McGuity’s HST will apply to, with only limited exceptions.

Dalton MCGuinty’s HST is simply the manifestation of Flaherty’s tirade of a year ago that “Ontario is the last place to invest” in order to cajole the easily cajoled Dalton McGuinty into lowering corporate taxes. So here was are, less that a year later and Dalton McGuinty is lowering corporate taxes and is imposing those lost taxes on the average Ontario resident through bizarre measures like taxing their home heating costs at 13%. Turning a province that few thought was the “last place to invest” into a province that is surely going to become “the last province to consume in and to raise a family and/or retire to.”



The Taxman.....predictions by McCartney/Lennon about McGuinty/Flaherty

One, two, three, four...
Hrmm!
One, two, (one, two, three, four!)

Let me tell you how it will be;
There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all.
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

(if you drive a car, car;) - I’ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) - I’ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) - I’ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) - I'll tax your feet.

Taxman!

'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

Don't ask me what I want it for, (ah-ah, mister Wilson)
If you don't want to pay some more. (ah-ah, mister heath)
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

Now my advice for those who die, (taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes. (taxman)
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

And you're working for no one but me.

Taxman!