“What exactly should the state finance with the money you pay in taxes?”

Mariya TARASIUK, military servicewoman:

“What comes first for a human being is health. So I would like my taxes to be used to fund medicine and above all to raise doctors’ salaries. Not without reason do they say that health care nobody pays for will cure no one.”

Vira KRAVCHUK, bookkeeper:

“I have just received my first pension payment, but I am going to continue working, for you can’t possibly live off your pension alone, because it won’t even suffice to pay the rent. Tax revenues should be spent to aid homeless children. Tax money should also be used to improve the situation of our soldiers and raise officers’ pay.”

Volodymyr TKACHUK, consultant:

“I think aid should be rendered to those people who spent all their lifetime, including their youth, on rebuilding what was ruined during the Second World War. Then people lived by an idea (I won’t say whether right or wrong) for the sake of which they were ready to sacrifice their health. A person who had worked for 30-40 years and then lost all his savings in bank deposits due to money losing its value, is today collecting empty bottles if not begging in the streets. Pensioners are looking for a job but can’t find one because not even every young man is able to get employment today, let alone the elderly. These are people to be pitied. Unfortunately, society is degrading, and our old age will appear even much more terrible. Moral values are being lost, as is respect for kith and kin... Any society should rest on three pillars: health, knowledge, and a decent retirement — things which should enrich and support us throughout our lifetime and guarantee that, when we reach old age, somebody will need us rather than throw us onto the fringes of society...”

Otar MOMIDZE, unemployed driver, Kyiv:

“I am 43, and it seems that I am too old to find a job as a driver. They hire only young ones. When I am lucky enough to find a job, get paid, and pay taxes, I hope that they will be used for road repairs.”

Yuliya SMYRNOVA, conservatory student:

“I don’t work yet, so I don’t pay taxes. But if I was chosen to distribute money gathered as taxes, I would use it for financing education in such amounts that it would become absolutely free, including not only teaching but also textbooks and all the necessary equipment. I would also use some part of this money on health security and the restoration of historical monuments.”

Vasyl RABOSH, handyman

“Today you can find a job only in the big cities; I came here from Zhytomyr oblast to earn some money. I was shocked by the number of homeless children on Kyiv streets, in underpasses, and on public transport. In the countryside people are more merciful, you won’t see such miserable children there. Pensioners are supported by their children, adults can earn money themselves. And who will help the child? I have two children myself. I try to give them everything they need. I would give all the tax money for the support of homeless children.”

Serhiy LYTVYNOV, general director, Minolta Ukraine Company:

“I start from the premise that a state is a moment in the society’s evolution; it is an instrument of compulsion, and, finally, it should wither away. This is why we should develop the society, not the state. It is absolutely clear that in the first place social programs should be supported at state cost, because charity alone cannot solve this problem. And the most important thing to be done is to finally put to work the mechanism of the market economy. It is no secret that the structural rebuilding going on in our country during these years has been done by pure drifting. That’s why in return for the taxes I have paid I would like to see the state make real moves toward creating friendly conditions for the development of a market economy.”