One of the weirdest news headlines I came across today was – “France raises ‘terror tax’ to support victims of attacks”. The Associated Press news article further read – “French citizens will contribute an extra 1.60 euros ($1.67) on their property insurance policies to help finance a fund for victims of the extremist attacks that have recently hit the country.” (here is the link to the article). I mean, I don’t think I have to write a blog post on how stupid this sounds. If anything, it is the responsibility of the government to prevent terror attacks on its citizens. Failing to do so should result in holding the government accountable and not in punishment for the citizens who have entrusted the government to keep them safe from such attacks. Moreover, how can a government raise such a tax that sounds and looks like a permanent or long term policy? Is this like France acknowledging – oh, we are going to have attacks every year from now on, so let’s raise taxes and setup a fund to pay the victims on a regular basis? Sigh! Frankly, it is disgusting! Instead, how about every time a terrorist attack happens in France, a thousand euros is automatically deducted from the monthly pay check of all federal lawmakers in that country and that money goes into the fund that helps the victims?
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