Taxation

It was once said that "Taxation without representation is tyranny".  Had a bit to do with the American Revolution, I believe.  A great campaign to study, for those of you who are military history buffs.

I was thinking about taxation, having floated the idea of a CRAP Tax in my last posting.  Even if such a tax does not get up there are many other worthy taxes to consider.  Tax could be payable for such everyday activities as mobile phone usage while driving.  Simply set up a detection point on major roads, and whenever a handset moves through the detection zone, the owner is taxed.  Forget road safety, let us generate some revenue.

This leads to the broader issue that the government could build a 'Star Wars' style 'death star' to hover around making people do all sorts of things.  This would of course be expensive and dangerous, but once perfected (in 10,000 years or so) it would be a fabulous means of social control.  A death star could stop people mugging others for credit card details (allegedly for charities) on city streets.  It could make the trains run on time (OK, I made that up).  It could reduce the number of bugs in summer.  What a program.  One wonders if the 'Star Wars' 'Death Star' was really called that.  Would the Galactic Emperor have named it after his dad, perhaps?  Or for security, just given it a number (eg: the FLOGBAG 666) so it would not stand out from all the other Imperial Battle Cruisers.  The Mysterons, I must say, would have known what to do.  Revealed their plans, then cocked all of them up, that's what.  Good alien menaces are hard to find.