cheers for your responses FourWinds, i thought this might be one to get you going :)
Obviously, I think you're wrong tho.....
European law? but most of the EC doesnt pay in this way. EU law is an excuse used by politicians to justify this attack on ordinary peoples living standards. It does NOT have to be done in that way. It is also a method of preparing the way for full privatisation - by creating a steady income stream that makes it a feasible and attractive proposition to private companies.
You dont pay for it via council tax? NO, you pay via your income tax - a PROGRESSIVE method of taxation, one that relates to peoples ability to pay. Considring that when you are better off you are likely to create more rubbish as well (y'know, cos you buy more stuff) then that is vaguely green as well.
The fact that it is a flat charge in most of Irerland means its even bloody worse. It's a poll tax, simple as, and as unfair as that one was.
>Personally I'd love a per bag system as I am careful about the amount of crap I throw away and might be better off.
glad to see its not about narrow self interest then!
As for it just being a Dublin thing. Well, i can recognise the grievance there, and how it pisses non-dubliners off. But it's a question of how to fight a campaign isn't it. Somewhere may be hit first, but if you are sure any campaign there would go down to defeat, it's probably wiser to hold your fire, so as to avoid demoralisation, and wait for a situation where you CAN win, and from there spread the campaign to other area's.
The question of incinerators is of course a vital one, but is it sinmply down to the amount of rubbisah created? No. Irelands only glass recycling facility is currently being closed down - did the government try and step in to prop it up, did it even promise any of these 'green' taxes to help it out? Did it fuck. Let it go to the wall, because it didn't fit with the governmentrs neo-liberal privatising agenda. By adding a pseudo-green tinge to this tax it has pulled the (pathetic) Irish Green Party in behind it, in blind ignorance of the wider agenda.
(I'll have to get back to you about the business tax thing onve I've found more facts n figures out)
Of course there needs to be a radical overhaul of how waste etc is collected and disposed of, there is far too much packaging used (a problem created by the manufacturers, not the consumer), and far more effort needs to be put into recycling. But, very simply, if it is the poor who have to pay for that it isn't going to happen - thats the simple truth of it. The recycling industry isn't a big profit industry, unlike the incineration business which is megabucks - it is always going to have to be subsidised by government. And bloody right too.
Oh yeah, has your income tax been reduced btw 4W? Or are you paying for rubbish collection twice?
|
