India, Jan. 18 -- Kowtowing to a myth of 'taxpayer money' may act as a handbrake on decisive action

Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as ' death tax' or ' dementia tax' , you have gone a long way to normalising the labels and winning support.

Some truth underpins these particular labels - an estate tax is triggered by a person's death, and the United Kingdom's abandoned levy for end-of-life care would have been particularly relevant for dementia sufferers.

Nevertheless, these tags are essentially political messages and we should expect unbiased media to use neutral terminology. Fair reportage would not, for example, r...