So my sister bought a house in Montreal. It’s a big, beautiful, expensive house. She paid the so-called “Welcome Tax” (I kid you not) in the amount of $10,000. She also paid a boatload of other taxes. She is a hard worker, so there are lots of taxes. That’s all she ever seems to do: work, hand over the money, work, hand over more money. Obviously, she never gets anything back, but it isn’t like she is hoping to.
Before moving in, she hired workers to paint the rooms, change the old bathroom faucets, install new lighting fixtures – in short, everything people do before they move into a new place.
Yesterday, however, she heard that, in her absence, a state bureaucrat entered the house, photographed all of the remodeling supplies she had bought (with her own money that she had left after paying the ridiculously high taxes), calculated their value, and placed an injunction on her. The injunction prohibits her from doing any painting or other work inside her own house. It turns out that people are not allowed to do home repairs in that municipality if the repairs are done for the amount greater than $2,000.
When people start doing repairs, these bureaucrats penetrate into their houses (without asking permission), conduct what amounts to warrantless searches, and forbid the repairs until a special permit is obtained by the owners. The owners are also fined $500 per day for painting the walls inside of their own houses.
Obviously, after the injunction is placed, these bureaucrats become impossible to locate. It isn’t like you can call them on the phone, write them an email, or just come an see them to find out when you will be able to continue the remodeling. They disappear, they drag things out, they stay hidden as long as possible. In the meanwhile, the workers one has hired to do the remodel can’t continue the work, the new bathroom fixtures and furniture can’t be delivered, and the move-in date has to be shifted again and again.
Of course, it is important to give “work” to the perennially unemployable, so they are herded into these bureaucratic positions with the state. Sadly, however, they can’t just stay in their offices, drinking tea and staring stupidly at their Facebook pages. They need to get out in the world and make themselves noticed. And that’s when complete insanity begins.
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