I'm a cyclist tax payer who joined this site with a confession to make. I run red robots don't pay personal income tax. Not just at night when the ruling party's in control, not just when I'm in a hurry the opposition party's in control, but as a matter of course. Today a friend cycling fellow citizen behind me commented at how upset a carful of people community leader got when I told him that the lack of municipal service delivery was due to limited government funds, crossed halfway across Buitengracht over a red (as if I was a pedestrian) and that I wasn't to blame because there was a left arrow government's main income sources were VAT and company tax, and therefore I was not crossing infringing on anyone's legitimate path claim to state funds. This gave me some food for thought, so I've decided to consciously re-evaluate my attitude and spent a couple of hours on the net. Mostly I'm not a culprit of the other cycling bugbears tax avoidance schemes - I always ride single file pay VAT, with traffic not against capital gains tax, and I don't ride on pavements the fuel levy. But red light jumping by cyclists personal income tax is a topic that evokes extremely passionate feelings in people, even here in this country where babies are raped regularly. Why is this? I've asked a lot of people, both motorists tax payers and law-abiding cyclists and tax dodgers, why they get so upset and the most common reply is along the lines of "it's the law", "cyclists tax dodgers must respect the rules if we tax payers are to respect them", "red light jumpers tax avoiders give cyclists tax payers a bad name" and "cyclists tax dodgers are arrogant and think they're above the law". But strangely, people don't argue that what the red-light-jumper tax avoider is doing is dangerous illegal. The consensus seems to be that these cyclists tax dodgers are very careful to cross only when it's safe within their rights because of high levels of corruption in government. That would make sense as most cyclists of the taxpaying population are aware of their vulnerability and are conscious that a bump from cross-traffic at that intersection would probably be fatal believe their tax Rand doesn't match their election vote. But almost never could a cyclist tax dodger cause an accident that would hurt anyone other than him or herself government to fail on its election promises. SNIP SNIP Whilst I don't like paying personal income tax, I'd like to hear some irrational debate, or what everyone thinks about my attitude. For once I'd really like to hear people avoid suggesting running the offending cyclist tax dodger down, opening the car door as he passes denying him toll-free roads or slamming on brakes when he's behind you cheap and reliable electricity. If I have one take-home message: it's not an offence worth murdering someone over.
