THE GOLDEN TOUCH ..

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE GOLDEN TOUCH?
A commentary on the object lesson carried in the
Fairy Tale of King Midas and the Golden Touch,
By Victor Drummond ©
April 2008

Most Canadians -- of my generation -- were taught how to recognize the real value of the multitude of alternative choices that everyone encounters in life. Lessons in how to avoid obscure pitfalls were often conveyed by way of entertaining fictions called “Fairy Tales”.

One such lesson – in keeping one’s promises – was contained in the story of the “Pied Piper of Hamlin”. Another lesson -- depicting the need to be on guard against false friends -- was presented in the tale of “Rumplestilskin”.

A very valuable lesson – on the rights and benefits – conveyed by a proper “Work Ethic” was presented in the story of the “Little Red Hen”.

Then there was the lesson on being compassionate and treating everyone fairly and honestly – in the tale of “Cinderella”.

The story of “King Midas” illustrated the consequences of thoughtless greed.

Another object lesson – “Don’t believe everything you hear.” -- is well illustrated by the story of “Chicken Little”.

Unfortunately the lessons to be learned – by way of these truth-in-fiction stories -- appear to have been totally lost by the time our current generation of politicians were old enough to comprehend anything.

Could anyone justify – in any honest and reasonable way – the extortion of an honest hard working person’s life savings using the excuse the victim had an opportunity to actually receive the theoretical “Income” being taxed?

The truth of this situation being the victim’s tax is real but the “Income” -- this so called tax is based upon -- is not.

No amount of convoluted logic is going to convert plain ordinary extortion into a justifiable tax penalty.

It is the political equivalent of the “Golden Touch” described in the “Fairy Tale” – “King Midas”. According to the fairy tale – however -- the gold appeared from nowhere whenever King Midas touched an object.

Apparently no one paid a penalty for the Kings new found riches – until his daughter kissed him and was immediately converted into a golden statue.

The King was not pleased with this transition – even if his daughter was now worth more dead than alive. No doubt if he had the power the King would exchange this golden statue for his living loving daughter.

In the political equivalent – the Canadian taxable benefit legislation -- also strives to make gold appear from nowhere via the magical ability of the taxable benefit law to convert zero income into a pot of tax gold.

Then everyone is expected to pretend no one is paying a penalty for this magical transition – but in fact there are thousands of innocent Canadian taxpayers paying the penalty just like King Midas daughter.

Whether the truth is acknowledged -- or ignored -- a lot of decent, honest, hard working Canadians are paying a terrible penalty for this bit of political hocus-pocus – just like the King’s daughter in the fairy tale.

They no longer have clear title to their homes. They no longer have retirement savings and/or they no longer have discretionary income with which to afford anything more than the bare essentials in life. And if they are living under the cloud of a deferred taxable benefit tax levy – they no longer have peace of mind.

While the past mental anguish -- caused by the taxable benefit Golden Touch – can not be undone the present and future harm can be prevented – if our slate of present federal politicians realizes they have the power and the obligation to correct this atrocity.

They are in the driver’s seat when it comes to correcting flawed laws.

Either unmitigated greed compounded by a total lack of empathy -- for the victims of this insidious tax policy -- or total incompetence in political affairs -- can explain the lack of vocal denunciation and lack of corrective action -- on the part of our federal Members of Parliament – to halt this travesty of justice.

The only current Member of Parliament – to show any concern for these victimized Canadian Taxpayers – is Gary Lunn MP for the riding of Saanich – Gulf Islands in British Columbia. In my opinion he is the only current MP deserving of re-election.

Every other contender for election -- in the coming federal election -- needs a wake-up-call to make them aware of two problems:-

(1) The plight of those victimized by this flawed tax policy

and:-

(2) The need to warrant re-election by doing something about the problem with this political “Golden Touch”

The organization “Canadians for Fair and Equalized Taxation, (CFET), has made it easy to send your message to Canada’s members of Parliament.

Visit http://www.cfet.ca for more information on this issue and use:-

http://cfet.ca/EmailMP.html to send a message to an MP over your own name and E-mail address.


Victor Drummond ©