We are all bloodsuckers now

19.03.2013 - EB

One week after Miloš Zeman spoke about godfather mafias that parasite on the body of Czech society and suck blood from it, ČSSD Shadow Finance Minister Jan Mládek said that self-employed people are parasiting on employed people by paying lower social taxes. If Mládek had qualified his words and said that some self-employed people are doing this, it would be hard to argue with him. For many high wage-earners - even some mini-godfathers - trade licenses are merely another tax-planning tool, just like offshore companies or licensing contracts with related entities. Putting restrictions on this tax-planning function is a legitimate political decision that would alienate only a limited number of voters. But lumping together small tradesmen who are barely scraping by with these opportunists devalues the concept of bloodsucker. Doormakers and translators aren't the godfather mafias Miloš Zeman had in mind.

Glossary of difficult words

to alienate - to cause someone to become unsympathetic or hostile;

to lump together - to treat as alike without regard for particulars;

to scrape by - to manage (financially), to make ends meet;

to devalue - to reduce or underestimate the worth or importance of.



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