The guy at the counter gives me a single sachet.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould I have some more than that please?<\/em>”<\/p>\n He hands over one more sachet. This is clearly not his decision. Policy forces him to make me beg like this. I think about asking for a third. Sometimes I do, more often I don\u2019t. I walk away from the counter vaguely annoyed. Even more annoying is being forced to pay for ketchup. It\u2019s not that I\u2019m bothered by the cost, it\u2019s just that it\u2019s so petty. Ketchup, a naturally occurring substance, is our birthright, and should be free to all, not sold for small but annoying sums. Likewise, the twenty cent charge for the toilets in Bus\u00e1ras doesn\u2019t make or break me financially, but it does add a tiny bit more irritation to my day every time I am faced with the turnstiles, which along with the junkies and the overpowering smell of urine, are the third most persuasive argument against using the facilities. I paid for my ticket. Is a toilet too much to ask? Apparently it is.<\/p>\n Annoyance. Irritation. Chafing. Just short of outright anger, these smaller emotions are the ones that nag away at us until one day, like Michael Douglas in Falling Down<\/a>, we just snap and go on an orgy of random violence around the city. The day of my own killing spree was hastened today by a budget<\/a> so crammed full of petty little levies and mean-spirited cuts that it might have been devised by Ryanair and Ticketmaster in a joint entry in the world Gouging and Penny-Pinching Games. Witness the following:<\/p>\n Snip!<\/strong> An \u201cExit Fee” payable by everyone leaving the country, \u20ac2 or \u20ac10, depending on how far you\u2019re travelling. <\/p>\n Snip!<\/strong> Stamp duty on cheques to rise from 30 cents to 50 cents. <\/p>\n Snip! <\/strong>Automatic entitlement to a medical card for over-70s to be abolished. <\/p>\n Snip!<\/strong> Duty on wine to increase by 50 cents a litre from midnight. <\/p>\n Snip!<\/strong> Standard rate of Vat to increase by 0.5% to 21.5%.<\/p>\n Snip!<\/strong> Child benefit for 18-year-olds to cease. <\/p>\n Snip! <\/strong>Early childcare supplements will cease at five and a half years of age instead of six years. <\/p>\n Every little helps\u2026<\/p>\n This all without mentioning the 1% income levy (\u201cI thought I\u2019d already paid this” \u201cOh no, you paid Tax<\/em>. This is a levy<\/em>“). There must now be few human activities remaining which have not had a charge slapped on them. I know times are hard. Money needs to be found somewhere. But I thought it was a basic rule that the more you have, the more you pay. These sneaky charges hit everyone equally, the richest paying no more than the poorest.<\/p>\n
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