The Editor,
Instead of raising taxes, why can’t the Liberian government live within its means? Isn’t living within your means–something that many Liberian families do on a daily basis– an option for the Liberian government too? Of course, it is.
Look. When money was tight, we used to eat dry rice (no smoke fish) for dinner. So why can’t our elected leaders eat “dry rice ” when there’s budget deficit??
Oh wait, I forgot: 99.9999 percent of the people who run our government like to “eat” government money, so they have no incentive to spend wisely!.
But guess what? When there’s a budget deficit, they want someone else to foot the bill by forcing them to pay higher taxes.. (Re “…‘Ill-Advised Liberian Govt. Plan Will Hurt Cellular Subscribers)
But there’s an important subject area in economics called tax incidence. It says that the entity upon whom a tax is levied does not necessarily bear the full burden of the tax. Some of the tax burden is shifted to another party.
In other words, if the Liberian government levies a tax on Lonestar Cell — and if Lonestar is to survive — it will have one of three responses or some combination thereof. 1) It will raise the price of its product or service, 2) lower dividends or 3) lay off its workers.
The important point to remember here is that only the Liberian people, and not some legal fiction called a corporation (Lonestar Cell MTN), bear the burden of any tax. Corporations are merely government tax collectors.
Instead of imposing higher taxes on you, the Liberian government needs to prioritize its spending and learn to do without a Food Budget Director for Speaker Alex Tyler.
The time has come for our government to live within its means–just like the rest of us.
Martin Scott
Atlanta, Georgia
[email protected]