Hit the young
Student fees, bigger classes, fewer teachers...and now a text tax?
Wow, The government must really have it in for me.
Perhaps I should explain. I am a 20-year-old student of St Patrick's College in Dublin. In other words, I am a student teacher. Those two words "student" and "teacher" are why I feel Cowen and Co. is out to assault my already empty wallet.
First of all, the fact that I am a student means I have no money anyway, recession or not. As if taxes on all the student essentials: rent, books, paper, pens, pencils, drink, etc. (not listed in order of personal preference) weren't enough, I am also planning on becoming a Primary School teacher. We all know that there are many problems with the education system: bigger classes, fewer teachers, less money and of course fewer jobs than before.
Today alone, (At 11am in the morning) I have sent 11 text messages and received 13. Within four hours, the government would have taken 23 cent from my friends and I. This is not to mention the 21.5% tax that they already have in place on text messaging and phone calls.
Now I am the first to admit that we are indeed in a recession, and that the government have a tough job ahead of them to get us out of this mess (that they got us into). But it really does not make sense to tax areas where the people who spend the most money in those areas don’t exactly have money in the first place.
So I texted some of my fellow texters to see if I'm not the only one who will dearly miss free communication. Here are a few answers:
"I'd be more concerned with what the government are doing with their cash rather then where they're getting it from."
"Hmm…. Well I am certainly not down with that sort of thing!"
"Let's put it this way, I would prefer that to people losing their jobs. I heard that it would raise a fair chunk of money and if that helps then so be it. We need to sacrifice something if this country is to get rid of the recession."
"WHAT?! The government are not impressing me of late - first they take our women, then they take our electricity, now they want my texts!?"
"If you want to stay up there in power lads, you better be willing to lower your own wages, because I'm telling you now, at the rate you're going, you won't be there for much longer."
In honour of the potential death of my dear friend, the free text message, I will end this piece in text language:
"Recession or no, d poor shouldn't have 2 struggle, d rich should b giving more €€€"
By: Conor Bredin
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