Guess Which Country This Telephone Bill Comes From?

Here's a fun game. The following is an excerpt from a telephone bill. How many of you can figure out what country it comes from, judging by the billing details? Remember, I might have translated it from a different language.

Telephone service - [Amt.]
Extra add-on services - [Etc.]
Service taxes and surcharges:
Excise tax
City tax
Government regulators tax
Emergency fund tax
Temporary surcharge for the government regulators tax
Government communications fund
"High Cost" fund - B
Poor families compensation fund surcharge
"High Cost" fund - B Rate Adjustment
Poor families emergency fund
"High Cost" fund - A
Federal government fee
Outside service area taxes and surcharges:
Excise tax
City tax
Emergency fund tax
Temporary surcharge for the government regulators tax
Government communications fund
"High Cost" fund - B
Poor families compensation fund surcharge
"High Cost" fund - B Rate Adjustment
Poor families emergency fund
"High Cost" fund - A
Long distance charges
Long distance carrier fee
Taxes and fees:
City tax

No, this is not from socialist France, or communist China, or state-run Venezuela.

This is from good old California, U.S. of A.

Good grief. And speaking of taxes, look at this page from The Tax Foundation.


[Thanks to The Tax Foundation for this graph. Click on the image for a larger version.]

You will note that, contrary to what the public might have thought about Bush's tax cuts, Tax Freedom Day is pretty much at an all-time "high" at April 30, 2007. (The all-time high was May 5 in 2000.)

The moments of greatest tax freedom within the last 25 years were in 1984, and again in 2003, both at April 18, 2007.

April 30, why, that's a full one-third of your life. Double-good grief.

Someone has to create a political party that will run on smaller government, lower taxes, and isolationism. I believe they would have a FIELD DAY.