I’m just here doing my taxes, wondering why. I don’t support my governments. I see them rewarding their friends and cutting social programs; making people like me pay for the big contracts they dole out to their friends – like my work isn’t worth the amounts they pay to their buddies! It’s easy to pay someone lots of money when the money isn’t yours; when you are just the custodian of the money of a huge group of people whom you feel no special allegiance or concern for. Damn, it’s pretty much unavoidable.

Why do I pay my taxes? Why can’t I just allot the amount I’d pay to social services, road repair (in my area) and more buses? Why can I not allot my money for workers’ wages not the raises of MLA’s?

I don’t make enough for Revenue Canada to come after me. For real. They’re not going to waste their time for the money they'd get out of me. I know where I sit on the wage/income scale and it’s not at a significant place. Why do I bother?

I remember going to church every Sunday, for several years after I was kicked out (of home). At one point I realized that I kept going because I was afraid of Hell - completely irrationally because I no longer believed in the religion, I told myself. So I quit going to church – or rather attended less and less frequently, until the last time I attended on an Easter Sunday, and became afraid that I’d burn if the holy water the priest was splashing around hit me.

I now pay taxes out of the same irrational fear: that the big bad Government will hunt me down and throw me in jail if I don’t pay. Even if that event is as likely as, well, Hell.

Image from: http://blog1.ebates.com/ebates/2009/02/