Afford

The problem is, of course, even more patients value their own life but are not well off enough to pay that slightly more.

"The government should pay for those who could not afford," say the noble council members.

That sounds fair ? Quite wrong. If you have to pay for something because you have the money, but, if you don't, it would be available free, it is a discriminating system against people who have the money. Look, the item is something that has been decided - from the perspective of the general public - that it is not cost-effective to have it free for everyone. How could one twist the argument and say let's have it free only for those who could not afford !?

In the jargon of economy, we call it an indirect tax.

And the most interesting kind indirect tax indeed. If you think of it, most of these items have a fixed price. In other words, the rate of taxation is therefore very small for billionaires, but a considerable percentage for the middle class.