It’s only been a few hundred years since western society rose up and rejected the rule of monarchs, with the accompanying feudal system and feudal taxes. The noble idea of “a government by the people, of the people, and FOR the people” was born, along with essential individual human rights such as the right to freedom of expression, the right to earn a living and importantly the right to freedom of movement. Countries and societies worked out rules and protocols which allowed maximum individual freedom without this detracting from the equal right of everyone else to the same set of rules.
At some point, maybe 100 or so years ago a new type of person was born, the legal entity or artificial person we know as a Pty (Ltd) or corporate company. These “person’s” rights and responsibilities within society began to be defined, but importantly from an early stage the responsibility was that of limited liability. So a corporate can sue and be sued in its own name, can earn profits and pay taxes (in countries like the USA at absurdly low rates), but when they impose themselves to the detriment of the natural persons, you, me and the rest of the human beings that walk the earth, their liability is limited.
The shares in the E-toll are of course held by just such an “artificial person, the company that owns Gauteng’s e-tolling infrastructure is 60% held by an Austrian corporate, so it follows that 60% of the profits generated by the e-toll will flow out of our country to the Austrian shareholders. We must be clear that the e-toll is a commercial system, and that failure to pay is not a criminal offence as implied by an e-toll invoice which refers to “violation”, failure to pay is a civil matter the same as not paying your lights and water or your bond. The e-toll addition to the slew of other taxes we pay over and above income tax, such as CGT, VAT, excise duties, estate duty, donations tax, transfer duty, fuel levies, vehicle licences – I could go on and on – will not be the last of the ongoing efforts to empty your wallet and further enrich the coffers of government and their corporate business partners.
Developed countries like Germany gave the E-toll the middle finger, even Argentina, a developing country and emerging market said “No Thanks” to E – Tolling. However, the USA happily agreed to it, I do not know why, but looking at their subdued response to the NSA spying on them and the rest of the world I could speculate!
When a society agrees to give up its freedoms, such agreement would never be given in one fell swoop, rather bit by bit, tax upon tax, and tariff upon E-Toll. The erosion of our hard won civil liberties is a gradual process, the eventual outcome of which will be that we find ourselves in precisely the position which provoked the uprising of western society outlined at the beginning of this article.
Make no mistake, the e-toll is not the last in the ongoing strategy of government and their corporate business partners like AARTO and E-Toll which will ultimately result in all of us, so who do you work for? Well actually it doesn’t matter because we are all working for them.
But that’s ok I guess, after all we live in a “democracy” – maybe we should change that to “de mock cracy”!
By Alastair Scott
Independent Agent
Body Corporate Bridging Solutions
082 920 9513
