Akureyri - 16.10.2014, Side 22

22 38. tölublað 4. árgangur 16. október 2014
THE ENGLISH CORNER WITH MICHAEL CLARKE
Simple
They have decided to simpli-
fy things. The sales tax system is
too complicated. There are two
tax levels, 7 % and 25.5%. The
7% tax applies to food, books and
various other things consider-
ed as necessities. Everything else
is considered lux-
ury items and tax-
ed at 25.5 percent.
The government,
who has pledged
to “simplify” the
tax system, has
decided to raise the
tax on necessities
to 12 %, and red-
uce the tax on lux-
uries to 24.5 %.
This simplification
process will make
life infinitely easi-
er for shopkeepers
and save a huge amount of mon-
ey for the government, so they say.
A pianist friend of mine was once
asked by a tenor whose voice had
lost its high “C”s to transpose a
song down a whole tone for him.
My friend said that it would
cost 10 thousand kronur. “How
much would it cost for a half tone”
the tenor asked him. Simple.
Some years ago there was a
debate in parliament on the high
cost of maintaining the Icelandic
Symphony Orchestra. One of the
politicians famously asked how
many players were in the orchestra.
Surprised by the number he sugge-
sted sacking most of them and
finding more efficient musicians
capable of playing
on more than one
instrument. Simple.
Families have
been told that
c o m p a r a t i v e l y
small increase in
tax on foods will
be offset by other
measures so that
the simplification
process will not
mean that the cost of
living for ordinary
families will go up.
In order to justify
these policies they have worked
out that the average Icelander can
live contentedly on a whopping
250 kronur per meal. The measly
increase in tax by just over 66%
will hardly make any difference
to normal families. And now they
will be able to afford a new telly.
Simple.
In order to prove that the-
ir policies are sound one of the
politicians has offered to publicly
live on 750 kronur per day.
This will allow her a daily diet
of:
One hot dog or:
One cup of cappuccino or:
Sharing a hamburger (without
fries) or a bowl of soup.
She says that she will bring
sandwiches. Simple.
What she is saying therefore is
that ordinary families in Iceland
should not allow themselves
the luxury of fast food, let alo-
ne restaurants, unless they are
prepared to starve for a week.
Imagine the money could be saved
by this simplification process if
the average Icelandic family went
back to the tradition of boiling
their shoes to make broth like they
did in the good old days. Oh for the
simple life!
Michael Clarke
Imagine the money
could be saved by this
simplification process if the
average Icelandic family
went back to the tradition of
boiling their shoes
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