[BITList] plumbers

[HUGH MCINTYRE]

Colin,

I recall the story of the brain surgeon who called a plumber to fix a leak in an emergency and complained about the bill, "I'm a brain surgeon, and I don't make that kind of money."  Said the plumber, "Neither did I when I was a brain surgeon."  Of course, as a marine engineer I'm fixated on the idea of a plumber being someone who is not a coppersmith, and who makes and fits pipes for ships' engine rooms - once afloat, his job is done by an engineer.

I'm all for low taxes, but I'm afraid a low tax economy leads to a low benefits culture - the money has to come from somewhere. The highest standard of life we ever had was in Denmark, and we certainly didn't pay low taxes.  Everything was costed and paid for - the rich paid tax through the nose and were still rich, and the poor paid no tax and got subsidies. Good housekeeping. Our radiators each had a device like a thermometer clamped on the front.  At the top of this device was a pinhole through which a purple fluid was allowed to evaporate. The radiators were supplied with a hot liquid, waste from the local power station, and on the day appointed a man came round and read the purple fluid level against a scale. This was subtracted from the previous reading, and all the results from everyone's radiators were added together and the total divided into the total cost of supplying the heating fluid to give a cost per notional unit.  This, multiplied by the number of such units from all of your radiators, was your bill, less tax if any.  When we left we got a bill for around 17 kroner (just less than £1) sent to us for a small amount of cleaning, and that included the sales tax (itemised) on a bottle of detergent.  A chap came to the door one day and told us our toilet cistern was leaking. We let him in, and so it was. I asked him how he'd known.  Our water consumption had taken a jump, he said, and that was the commonest cause.   As I said, good housekeeping.

The circus element in US elections never ceases to amaze me.   However, the hoi polloi get a vote in who will be president, not so here.

Hugh.
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