Now that Moose and I have settled back in Perth, Western Australia, a place where citizens, teachers, and employees are encouraged to spy on eachother, I had to come up with some kind of antidote to the slightly ridiculous legislative overcompensation which goes on this particular utopia, despite clear evidence that it's already one of the safest places in the world and the crime rate has been falling continually for at least ten years.
So I came up with a philosophy of responsible citizenship which allows me to do the things I enjoy doing, as and when I like, without feeling persecuted. I call it The Europe Tax and it works like this:
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I behave as I would if I lived in a liberal European country, enjoying such activities as drinking a beer whilst walking down the street, riding a bike on the footpath without a helmet, carrying a laser pointer, a pen-knife, or a marker pen.
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When a police officer stops me for doing one of these things, I pay the fine issued to me and I say to the officer, "ah, time to pay The Europe Tax, thank you." Instead of thinking of it as a fine and a punishment, I consider the payment a tax that I must pay periodically to continue enjoying my life the way I want.
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I feel much happier paying this periodic tax than I would if I had to feel like a criminal for engaging in what are actually completely harmless activities.
Hopefully this will help others who live under over-zealous, rich, conservative, interfering local governments, to mentally re-frame their own place in the system of legislative over-optimisation.
(For the record I have not yet had to pay The Europe Tax in the twelve months since our return despite enjoying the freedoms I had become used to travelling and living in the EU. So far The Europe Tax has proven to be quite economical.)