This morning I watched a documentary on the Russian Mafia's attempt to get a strong hold on New York City, and challenge the Italian mafia in the 1980's and 1990's. In addition to the usual crimes for prostitution, drug dealing, protection and rackets, they also found ways to abuse government programs, ripping off welfare and other aid programs in the millions of dollars, most of it unrecoverable. Earlier this week there was the Canadian news reports on the desperate state of a remote First Nations reserve, despite the billions of dollars the federal government pumps into Indian Affairs each year, much of it with no accountablility.
It made me think of my years working at the tax department, seeing all the tax evasion, and even seeing the attitude of so many people I know who feel cheating on taxes is OK. It got me thinking about how much we in Canada pay each year in taxes, both direct and indirect, including more and more fees for government services. If we did not have the huge amount of government waste due to poor economic decisions made for political rather than viable reasons as well as shear incompentence and personal greed, if we did not have all the money lost to the criminal element which has no conscience for the needs of others, and we had people paying the proper amount of tax without padding expenses, claiming personal expenses as business, or hiding earnings in the underground economy, just think of where we would be! Canada and all levels of government would have sufficient funds to deliver what Canadians want, like a strong health care program, good education opportunities for those who are dedicated enough to pursue them, great infastructure, etc. We could probably see lower tax rates, and as a wealthy nation, Canada could have a greater impact gobally on sharing our undeserved good fortune with those in need elsewhere. If this same thing happened in Europe, there would be no economic crisis there right now.
I realize that I may be conservative and a strong believer in the need to follow rules in order to have an organized society rather than the chaos of some third world countries where even simple driving rules are ignored. I then thought of how our society has changed in its attitude about driving as an example. I get quite annoyed, if not down-right disgusted, to see so often where people will make a left hand turn when there is a break in the on-coming traffic, even though there is a turning light which is red. There is no sense of shame that scores of people observed this blatant disregard for obeying the law.
I can go on and on about the deteriorating state of driving based on what I see as a lack of respect for the law and other drivers. So many people see nothing wrong with passing a long line of traffic at a merge point, and cutting in at the front of the line, because their time apparently is more important that the other drivers who are being held up by these people.
It is easy to become very self-righteous. And then I have a wife to remind me about all the times I drive 95kph or more across the Golden Ears Bridge, even though the posted speed is 80 kph. The fact that others do the same is no excuse. I have to admit that while I am offended by people running stop signs or going through red lights, or weaving in and out of traffic for no apparent reason other than to get to their destination one or two car lengths faster, I don't seem to be offended with driving more than 5 kph over the posted speed limit when the traffic is light and I have decided for myself that the posted speed is too low.
So, am I right or am I wrong? Is it really OK to proceed through a red light if you feel there is no danger of hitting any other car? How do we decide which rules should always be obeyed and which are optional?
I don't know. What I do know is that I will continue to rant about rude drivers butting into the front of lines and people simply ignoring stop signs and red lights. And I will be happy about it, sort of.
No comments:
Post a Comment