A Tax on the Stupid

Y'know, a lot of people used to call the National Lottery a tax on the stupid. I don't think that's quite fair - it is a tax on the idiotically optimistic. Sure, you're pretty stupid if you enter the lottery but in the near impossible circumstance that you won, not many people would be remarking on that stupidity. Unlike, say, if you gave money to the last government in return for one of their pointless, invasive and pointlessly invasive ID cards.

Therefore, I've got no sympathy whatsoever for people affected by this:

Labour have failed in attempts to get compensation for people who bought ID cards, which are set to be scrapped.

They say thousands of people who voluntarily spent £30 on cards did so in "good faith" and should be refunded when next renewing their passports.

But they lost a vote in the Commons during a debate on proposed legislation to abolish the cards.

If you got an ID card before you had to, then you are either a Labour minister, utterly thoughtless or blindly obedient to the state. All of which suggest you are a person of limited intellectual capacity. Furthermore, if you paid for an ID card knowing that the opposition parties opposed them and that opposition party would almost certainly form the next government, then you are doubly stupid. Basically, you wasted your money. You lost out on the money you sunk into the ID card scheme. Boo-fucking-hoo for you.

Normally I support the government returning whatever money they can to the people. In this case, though, I don't - partly because they cannot afford to refund those stung by this scheme. The entire ID card folly cost the taxpayer millions - each ID card is estimated to have cost £20,000 each. This isn't just government waste - this is government waste pumped up on speed and steroids. The comparatively small amounts of money individuals have lost by signing up to the scheme is gone - as is the taxes of many others who had to pay the government under duress for this scheme, even if they didn't get an ID card and thought the whole thing was a shit idea from the very start. If you paid for an ID card, you don't deserve a refund. You're just a bit dumb.

Which is perhaps the sole achievement of the ID card scheme - it finally managed to create a tax on the stupid.