Death we can conquer, but not taxes.

They say that death and taxes are the only 2 certainties in life. There is no disagreement about death with billions of dollars being spent on how to postpone death and prolong life. However, when it comes to taxes there is extreme, even violent, debate. Those who have to pay taxes hate them and revere Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher who cut top rates of taxes. The rich use their money to support conservative politicians who will protect their wealth while the poor vote for socialists who increase taxes to pay for handouts to the poor. At times the debate gets so heated that people die. That is why a recent book by Prof Thomas Piketty of France, which looks at relation between capital and labor, is producing thousands of blogs by economists. For us in India there is no debate. Seems that Socialism is in the preamble of our Constitution which was written by the Congress in the years after independence and since the Congress has been in power for 56 out 66 years it has diligently followed a system of very high taxes with handouts to the poor even though we had to pawn our gold reserves with the IMF in 1991 to avert bankruptcy. Two ladies eating out seemed surprised that taxes came to nearly 25% of the bill. But they are wrong. The total bill for food and beverages came to Rs 800 on which they had to pay VAT and service tax. What they have ignored is that every item, such as oil, bottled water and beverages, had already been taxed very heavily when the restaurant bought them. But surely it is good to tax the rich and give handouts to the poor so that they can live decent lives? That presumes that the poor like to remain poor, dependent on handouts, and do not want to become wealthier. The problem is that people resent having to pay taxes in India just as they do in other countries. People are agitating for removal of all toll plazas surrounding Delhi. When we pay road tax, taxes on cars and on petrol why do we still have to pay toll every few km? Others decide to join the fun and take whatever handouts they can. Politicians use this excuse to game the system to win votes but at great damage to the economy. A study from the University of Michigan has shown how politicians steal electricity as a bribe to voters, especially before elections. Massive waste of public money results in fiscal deficit and high inflation which harms the poor. The rich have accountants who know how to exploit every loophole. So the rich in India get richer but others remain where they are. Maybe one day we will conquer death. But taxes will kill us.