that's rather marxist
I know, it was an impulse thought, but it's motivated by a strong dislike I have for rampant individualistic consumerism. So you don't have your tax dollars back - now you can't have that fancy new Merc? What a shame. Basically, there's an amount of stuff we each need to survive. It varies (eg. disabled people might need a wheelchair), but in general, we should all be able to be happy with a roughly equivalent amount of stuff. Anything over that that we can consume does not serve to make us any richer, in a human sense.
I also dislike the shaky link between hard work and high pay. Consider the disparity between people working the same jobs living in metropolitan Perth, and those working up in the mining towns. Same job, just higher labour demand = higher pay. What about people who do the same job between firms, but get paid differently? And what about professions like stock brokers, who do little more than take guesses for a living, but if they strike lucky might earn heaps of dough, or bail out. It doesn't make sense. And I'm sure there's a fuckload of mechanics, labourers and such who would wonder why, even as they come home knackered from a tough day's work, that they are not earning as much as executives who sit in offices and guide corporate ships along without equivalent exertions.
With all the wealth in the world, it's strange that we all still feel we have to spend the majority of our adult lives slaving away at the coal face, only to retire and have some time to enjoy life when we are old and decrepit. Why don't we all work a little less, spread the wealth around a little more, so that we all can enjoy simpler, easier lives?
I don't know where I'm going with this. I just get up everyday, and I'm glad I don't have to see many other people in a day, because some just make me weep for the future.
Yep, i love it when my tax money funds some low life centre-link bum's meth habit.......
How about the tax dollars that could fund return-to-work programs? Or drug rehab? Or counselling services so that they don't have such a shitty childhood? Or police so they don't grow up in such a rough neighbourhood? Or teachers, so they could have a better education? Or infrastructure, so they don't have to live somewhere with no facilities?
Your resentment for the symptom blinds you to the causes.