http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/m-n/maney/2005/maney021605.htm

Taxing the Y Chromosome
When you pass the buck, everybody ends up footing the bill

February 16, 2005

by Russ Maney

Call it the "Y Chromosome Tax." Or, to use my mother's
"polite" name for the
male anatomy: the "Tom Dooley Tariff."

(No, I have no idea how she came up with that name. Apologies in advance to
anyone named Tom Dooley.)

Now that you have no idea what I'm talking about, let me be clear. As
reported by The Daily Telegraph in London, a group of female Swedish
politicians is proposing to hit men with a "domestic violence tax" to pay
the costs to society of abuse against women. It would be a tax on all men,
not just those convicted of abuse.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Gudrun Schyman, one of the politicians
who have signed the proposed bill, said, "It must be clear to all we have a
gigantic social problem and cost in men's violence towards women and we must
discuss how we are going to pay for it."

There's no question spouse abuse is wrong, and a serious problem that costs
society financially and otherwise. According to the most recent report by
the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1998, an estimated
876,340 violent victimizations occurred against women by intimate partners
(current or former spouses or boyfriends). Of those, 1,320 were murders.

However, Schyman went on to say, "We have to have a discussion so that men
understand that they have a collective financial responsibility."

The aptly named "Left Party," of which Ms. Schyman is a member, was quoted
as saying, "The idea of men collectively paying for the social costs of
violence toward women is no different in principle than the fact that poor
people pay less tax than rich people."

The first logic flaw here is that higher taxes on rich people are based
partly on their greater ability to pay. While sex-based pay differences are
still a problem in many industries, the domestic violence tax would apply to
everyone with a Tom Dooley, regardless of the size of his bank account.
(Size? Ability to pay? Let's definitely not go there!)

Then there's this little detail: The same BJS report also says about 160,000
men were victims of violent crimes committed by their female intimate
partners. Who pays the tax for those?

Finally, and most important, is the notion of "collective financial
responsibility." How can a guy in Manhattan be held financially responsible
for a goon in Seattle killing his wife?

While this proposal is in front of Sweden's parliament, not the U.S. Senate,
it underscores the growing and disturbing trend of "interest group
antagonism." The most obvious example in this country is the concept of
"slave reparations."

Like a domestic violence tax, the idea of slave reparations stems from a
serious social problem: the lingering racism and other vestiges of the worst
institution in our country's history. However, both ideas also rest on the
notion that, simply because of your sex, race, ethnic background or another
physical characteristic, you may be part of a group that's in debt to
another group, simply because members of your group persecuted another group
in the past.

Isn't any advantage or disadvantage given to someone, solely based a
physical characteristic, discrimination? Whatever happened to the idea that,
at least in today's world, we're all "created equal?" It's enough
to have to
pay more because you happen to be more successful later in life. Can you
imagine being in dept to another group on the day you're born?

Also, where would such taxes and reparations end? If everyone of African
descent would be due some kind of reparations for slavery, then should Jews
be due reparations from African Americans, based on the Egyptians'
enslavement of the Jews? How about blacks and whites now living in
Southwestern states? What do they owe people of Mexican descent, since it
could be argued the U.S. invaded those lands during the Mexican-American War
in the 1840s?

Wait a minute. Perhaps I should be arguing the other way. The Maneys are
descended from the Huguenots, a group of French Protestants persecuted and
massacred by French Catholics. The particular Maney who spawned my branch of
the family fled France to Ireland as a result. He was then persecuted along
with many other Irish serfs and had no choice but to flee to Virginia as an
indentured servant. He later married the daughter of a Cherokee. The way I
figure it, just on my father's side, I'm already owed a chunk of Paris, a
piece of the Vatican, a hunk of a Virginia plantation and a lump of
Tennessee.

But, don't worry. I'll just take a check. No Euros or Swedish kronas,
please.


--
Men are everywhere that matters!




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