Calculated failure
In a world where everyone has a calculator in their pocket (go ahead, check that smart phone: isn’t that a wonder!), what goes with the politicians that bandy numbers about. Do they assume that their figures will never be fact-checked?
I happened across a press release, from an Ontario MPP, that wanted to disparage the new carbon tax. While announcing that the imposition of a 4.4 cent per litre surtax on fuel would trigger the end of civilization as we know it, the additional information that this would cost the average household an additional $268 per year (until the next increase) should have also triggered some quick finger figuring.
Seriously, do YOU use six thousand litres of gasoline per year? In your average household. I certainly don’t. In fact, we tend to remain in the <less than half that amount> category, even with long vacations. I call “nonsense” on the premise that others drive that much more. Unless their car is actually a Humvee, when they deserves to pay more.
Try to understand the basis of the new carbon tax. We, as a society, want to reduce the emissions that we breathe. The ON government has also cancelled any emission testing, but that’s another peccadillo. Rational folks want to save the planet, or at least reduce the odds of death by climate variance. I worry about any government that remains so ignorant of “cause and effect”. What else are they doing to waste tax dollars?
Here, on the Island, the (outgoing??) government bought a few minutes of grace today by denying the sale of a large block of farm land to a corporation. More on that, later.
