I was diligently entering figures onto the spreadsheet that I use to track my money when I paused to think about my attachment to the funds. I have a friendly, although not obsessive, attachment to my bank balance and am reasonably comfortable with the comings and goings of the dollars that visit my accounts briefly each month. The money coming into the account represents the earnings and savings, rewards of years of work, now in the form of pensions instead of pay cheques, but it is most welcome and I consider it temporarily mine.
It is the money going out of my account that I was pondering. Did I get fair value for those entries in the debit column? Should I expect value for the money? In some cases, no. Money donated or given freely to friends or charities has no strings attached to it. Once out of my hands, the disposal of the gift is up to the person or charity to do with it as they please and see fit. The ownership has passed.
Money tendered for services rendered is likewise released from my ownership. It is up to me to decide if the value was there in paying for a bus ticket, a taxi fare or an all-expenses paid trip to the sunny islands. In some cases, there is redress if the contracted services are not to our expectations like a repaired car that still backfires and lurches down the road despite the expensive ministrations of a mechanic. In those cases, there remains some attachment to my money.
Money paid for goods is soon gone and out of my grasp. In some cases one can bargain for the initial price of goods but for most things, like groceries and gasoline, we have little choice but to say good-bye to the dollars once we have tendered payment. All one can do is shop prudently and watch for sales specials. In many instances though, we are held hostage by large multinational corporations and their desires to have our money, no strings attached.
Money paid for silly mistakes like parking tickets and speeding fines disappears immediately into the coffers of agencies of the law as prescribed by ourselves through our politicians. What they do with that money is anyone’s guess.
Money paid for fees is usually attached to some service received and the use of those services is in most cases, voluntary. Fees paid so you can exercise or play games on ice rinks, golf courses or video machines is gone with thanks in advance. There are some fees that are suspect, such as the parking fees to go shopping or visit a sick friend in hospital, as there is a suspicion that those fees ought to have been covered in the general tax levy or income taxes. Ah, now there’s the rub.
Taxes. We have no choice but to pay the various taxes or face the consequences. This is money paid under duress unless we feel we are getting value for money. If I think I am getting value, then I ought to snip that cord of attachment and turn my thoughts to happier things. When I read that little sticker on the gas pump that says the government is taking a large portion of the price paid, I want to feel good about that. I do not want to feel unhappy about the condition of the road I am driving on since that was where that transportation tax was to be used. I feel I still have some attachment to those dollars, although it seems there is little I can do about their use by others.
Similarly with my income taxes, I would like to feel those hard-earned dollars were being spent on worthy causes, not on $16 per glass orange juice nor helicopters that do not get off the ground. Much of that federal tax money goes to pay wages and I would like to think that it was paid and received in good conscience by federal and provincial workers, be they police, army or pencil pushers.
Likewise with my local property taxes. However, I feel more attached to that money than the dollars sent to Ottawa and Toronto, perhaps because I can see it being used or perhaps abused. Maybe if I had a more than passing relationship with my money I would be even more upset with my tax money, but having worked in the public service, I can understand how what seemed mine quickly becomes theirs.
When council decides to collect its millions of dollars and then hands it out in budgets, the ownership of that money appears to change hands although, personally, I never totally released it from my ownership. I had not yet received any goods or services – just the promise of them. However, if I perceive that I did not get value for my money, there is little or no chance of getting a refund, so all I can do is complain. And hope for better value next year. Does the council ever consider that the money they have collected, some not given willingly, has strings attached to it, and is not really theirs?
I think that there may be a problem with the perceived ownership of that money collected through property taxation. Once council sets that budget, departments come to think of it as their own. It is too often treated as a gift bestowed by council to do with as seen fit, according to a plan or the precedent of former levels of service. Employees are paid with some expectation of performance, but as long as the self-set goals are achieved, no one looks too closely at results. Tax-payer money is always there, a kind of manna that falls from who knows where. Gifts, as I said earlier, have no strings attached.
When I pay my taxes this year I am going to attach a note saying ‘this is not a gift’. Some clerk will wonder what is wrong with the taxpayer on roll number such and such, but I’ll feel better when I select my spreadsheet column that says Strings Attached.
