Just take our money and get out of our way

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/07/2011 (5515 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is a curious thing that it is almost impossible for Canadians to enjoy life’s simple pleasures without the government tagging along. Want a cigarette? Well, the government will tell you when and where you can enjoy one, but only after you have paid an exorbitant tax on it.

Feel like a beer? Well, you can only do that at the government’s discretion and again, only after you have paid an exorbitant tax on it.

Feel like making a small wager?

Well, you can only do that in a government-run or government-franchised casino. The good news here is you don’t have to pay tax on that, perhaps because the odds against your winning anything worth keeping are so high that a tax on top of that would amount to cruel and unusual punishment and probably be unconstitutional.

At least government hasn’t yet found a way to put a bureaucrat in bed with us (unless, of course, you are married to one, in which case you have my sympathy) or to tax whatever it is we might do there. But that day may come.

There used to be in Winnipeg something called the Interdict, a list of names of problem drinkers who were not allowed in beer parlours or government-run grog shops. People didn’t volunteer for it — authorities put their names on it — and it was difficult to enforce because all you had to do was go a bar where no one knew you; a lot of fun that would be, but the government doesn’t really want you to have fun while you are enjoying the simple pleasures of life.

The Interdict has gone the way of all things inhuman, but it has been replaced by a list of problem gamblers. The difference is the gambler has to put his own name on the list and then the casino is obliged to keep him out.

Casinos do this with varying degrees of enthusiasm but some in Canada are now using facial-recognition technology to identify listed gamblers who try to sneak back in. Bells and whistles go off and the backslider is given the bum’s rush.

In its way, this is even more offensive to personal dignity than the Interdict was. Both are efforts by government to save us from ourselves — or if you want to look at it another way — to save ourselves from government services, but the Interdict at least was an honest imposition while this is just sanctimonious interference in our idle time. No one wants government as a partner in pleasure.

Just take our money and get out of our way.