By: Stuart Graham

Excellent article.
My wife works for H&R Block and has done for ten years plus, exactly the same thing. The franchise was owned by a local accountant Statewide in a state in Australia (sorry they are that nasty in the corporation), his family took over and ran it. A very happy place to work, family accountants had a prize giving party each year, wore small slack periods outside tax season.
Once they retired without children who wanted to continue business, back to corporate ownership. All the quality wooden decks sold and replaced with cheap white laminate corporate image (cheap and nasty the staff say), even urn removed to save money. Every piece of goodwill from clients eaten up with too much up selling, cross selling loans and they keep on increasing charges. Staff now so casualised it is a joke.

I read your articles as always good, I am a pro-market Conservative, but you are right this is not a free market, it is a corporate system with over paid elites and the rest, these times never end well.

As to the Zonk, I could imagine if given to Politicians then able to buy votes – we would be Zonked out, in no time.