No vs. Yes - The HST debate as I see it, is not a debate at all.

But I am not. And I hope you aren't either.

When you do get that ballot in the mail and open it, think of how you want your province to be. Then vote No.

Yes, the question is the most obscure and confusing wording ever (I'd love to read how this was translated into Chinese).

Yes, the government sucks and all that other whiny crap I hear all day, PLUS they "illegally" forced HST upon us (or some such other ignorant view).

Yes, the government misspends a lot of our hard earned money.

And yes, you want to vote No.

You want to vote No for many reasons:

If the GST and PST are reinstated, small businesses will have to change their systems again, the costs of which will be as much as a month's profit or more.

The jobs of the GST and redundant PST workers will be restored, and the taxes somewhere else will have to increase in order to pay for that bureaucracy.

The government will get enough money to operate in the comfortable way they like to, with the amount of money they feel they need (to pay B.C. Parks officers an 85$ per day stipend for food while traveling, or entry level clerks Helijet tickets to sit in on meetings in Vancouver)... So just deal with it.

And if you don't like it, run for office. 

The HST was an attempt at streamlining our government - something we never see.

Don't punish this behavior just because you didn't like the way it was implemented.

Can you tell the difference between stupid and brave behavior? Most of the time, no... (I know this because of the amount of times people tell me I am brave, when I really know I am not). On the outside, acting in a way  to "punish" the government (quotations because you are just punishing yourself) looks the same as when someone is behaving with stupidity and not bravery. Acting out of stubbornness can seem like an act of principle. It's not (I am an expert - you'd know why if you met my father).

Just because the government forced HST upon us, doesn't mean we need to vote it away.

And since that is the only argument I have heard so far for reinstating the PST and GST, then by now you all must have come to the only logical conclusion too... vote NO.

And just in case you are left with any doubt, take a moment to step back and try looking at a bigger picture.

Instating a Harmonized Sales Tax was a move towards a more sustainable system of taxation: decreasing income tax and increasing consumer tax. I should not be getting taxed more the more educated I am, the harder I work, and the more money I make and neither should you. But we all should be getting taxed more the more we spend, the more we buy, the more we consume and the more we tax the environment through that consumption.

An additional "health" tax on fast food, alcohol and tobacco; a "green" tax on petroleum based products and anything that contains PCBs, fire retardants, and other such bio-accumulating chemicals that are slowly killing all living things; and a luxury tax on anything that costs more than 50% above the average price for a good would be a dream come true in a province that has the potential to be a leader in the world, but instead sits sniveling about how expensive things are and how it sucks to be in debt while you sit there drinking the second 3$ coffee of the day.

I used a facebook app to find out I fit in the middle right. Pro HST, moderately care. It's true.

Lastly, if you don't like it, move to China, where there is no sales tax and also no option to vote; move to the US where it is more like 3%, state-dependent and a government that lies and steals. Or here's a novel idea: stop consuming. Show me an average Canadian who actually needs to buy more than 50% of the things he spends his money on, and I will show you one who could care less whether there is consumer tax or not.