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The Rural Voice, 1978-07, Page 14A Matter of Principal by J. Carl Hemingway Isn't there a quotation somewhere about "the mills, wheels or something of the gods turn very slowly but they grind exceedingly fine". I think the quotation is mixed up but maybe you get the idea. Also I guess I read too much and remember too vaguely. 1 think you will agree that rct'orni is a tremendously slow process and the larger the "power" the slower the action. In this case it is government legislation and the courts. Almost twenty years ago tlrre Co-operators Insurance Committee of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture came up with,the idea that a car owner that had Co -Op Insurance should be covered up to -the amount of insurance that he had on tis car if he happened to suffer injury or loss caused by an uninsured driver. They discovered the need for this kind of protection when they learned that a family. - Mother, Father and two small children. was struck by an uninsured driver and suffered very severe injury. Their only compensation was the Ontario Government plan which paid $5.000. maximum for injury to one person and $10.000 for any one accident through Unsatisfied Judgment. The committee was told that legislation prevented an insurance Company for giving this kind of protection. However Co -Op insurance did add an Accidental Death and Impairment clause that provided an extra protection of up to $10.000. Perhaps more important than the extra protection is the fact that the "wheels" of government started to turn slowly. After ten years the Ontario Government mace it mandatory that all car insurance companies provide an extra $5.000. Accidental death or impairment protection to cover losses caused by uninsured or inadequately insured drivers. Now. another ten years later. i understand that legislation has been passed protecting the insure' -.river up to the limit of his insurance if the driver who causeu the accident doesn't have _enough insurance to pay the damages. To me this is only fair. Why should I pay for $500.000 insurance coverage to protect the person or persons 1 may cause to suffer injury or loss only to be clobbered by an uninsured driver who only provides me with $10.000 protection through' the Unsatisfied Judgment Fund? There are many injustices that need to be corrected. It is discouraging that it takes so long and many will never know that the effort they put forth finally bore fruit. in the case of the Insurance Committee of which i write. i doubt that half of them ate still living and even though 1 was secretary of the committee i can't remember who all of them were. Presently there is another area of reform that is urgently needed and that is in the method of tax collection. (Perhaps i should also mention the need for reform in the way those taxes ate spent.I'm horrified by even the thought.) There is a • movement proceeding to change the taxation system for farm land but at best it is only a "patch" for the taxation problem. We can put a "patch" on farm taxation, then we may have to put a "patch" on corporation taxation then income taxation. I don't even want to think about excise taxation. sales taxes. business taxes, trade licenses and I suppose we could also get into tariff reforms. It seems to me we have to make a new beginning or we will have even more "patches" on our tax reforms than we presently have .0a our taxation plans. Why do we pay taxes? 1 want good roads for the transportation of my farm production and, of course, for my convenience and pleasure so I pay a tax on gasoline which is supposedly to be used to provide this service. PG. 14 THE RURAL VOICE/JULY 1978. We hear a great deal about the high cost of fuel for our cars but I - don't hear much about the gasoline tax which amounts to something over one third of the cost per gallon. i want schools for the education of my children. While we do`a lot of complaining about school taxes being too high we don't hear any complaints about the idea of people pooling their money for education. I could go on and on with examples 'but basically we are willing to pay "taxes" to cover the costs of services we want. i want roads. In our modern economy i can think of no fairer way to pay for them than by a "sales" tax on gasoline. I will pay for the amount of use I make of the roads even if i only use it for pleasure driving. i can think of no better way. When it comes to education it is a little more complicated. i want my children td have training for a great variety of jobs and am willing to pay for their education. But what about those who have no children? They too are expected to pay school taxes. If you ask someone who has a toothache if he is willing to help pay for the education of a dentist i think he will agree. The cost of education could be paid for by a personal tax on everyone, say over eighteen. it is a service that gives everyone a definite benefit. Again 1 could go on and on with this list of services that could be covered on the basis of a "sales" tax. There is another kind of need for the collection of taxes. There are those of us who have chosen a career in jobs that do not pay enough to provide for an equitable income. In many cases this is not the fault of the person or work being done. Again the man with the toothache doesn't shop around for a "bargain" dentist but he will shop all over town for the lowest priced beefsteak. There arc those who through misfortune are unable to earn a living. These too must be taken care of. This brings me to the second type of taxation. It is the taxes required to provide equalization of income. Please! Please take special note of the fact that i said equalization of income. 1 did NOT say equal income. 1 still believe there should be payment for extra effort expended and greater dangers and risk that some are willing to endure for the benefit for all of us. There are those who have by various means managed to get themselves into a position where they can collect extremely high fees and have an extremely high income. The money needed for equali,::aion of income should come from Income Tax. 1 haven't been able to think of any tax levied that 1 couldn't classify as a sales tax or an Income Tax. if you can find one I would be glad to hear from you. Some years ago 1 outlined this idea to quite a. prominent political financial expert. The only flaw he could find in the idea of only two taxes "sales" and "income" was to state that corporation taxes were necessary since some companies managed to evade many other taxes. It seemed to be a pretty lame excuse. As long as there are taxes or rules or laws there will be those who will evade them but it will not be the fault of the regulation. It will be the fault of its enforcement. By having only sales and income taxes there would be no "hidden" taxes. We would easily know how much we are paying in taxes and it shouldn't be too difficult to itemize the tax bill. if we knew how much we are paying in taxes and how our tax dollars are 'spent there might be a big drop in our demand on government. 1 have heard a great many people say that they didn't have so ouch to complain about the amount of their tax bill as they did about the way their tax dollars are spent. Let's start working on a simpler and mroe open system of taxation and then we can be more knowledgeable on how the stoney is spent. No more "Patches" please!