Carry on giving and something's gonna give

It was Benjamin Franklin who once observed that there were only two things certain in life: death and taxes.

Rather than concede that he wasn't 'half right', on the contrary, I assert that he was only half right.

Death becomes us all. Of that, there is no doubt.

But tax?

Take a young girl, just out of school, not yet out of her teens, three kids, no husband - indeed, no man at all.

No job, no hope and probably no desire.

No income tax.

Ah, but surely she pays taxes on pretty well everything she buys, as we all do?

Yes. But there is a difference.

Whatever she buys, she does so with money the taxpayer gave her in the first place.

In essence, she never pays the tax.

She is merely returning some of our tax only for the Government to waste on some other worthy, worthless cause.