No matter the outcome, there will always be debates about Prime Minister Bruce Golding's unprecedented move of asking people to stay calm and not to riot ahead of Finance Minister Audley Shaw's presentation yesterday.

There is, of course, absolutely no way of determining definitively if his appeals have had an inflammatory or placatory effect, since this is in the context of a society, with any number of factors at play, and not a controlled experiment in a science lab. However, one thing that is clear is that a riot over tax increases, in this or any year, is totally counter-productive.

For not only will it not change the fact that the budget will have to be financed, but the cost of damage to public property, as a result of the riot, as well as extra costs due to police and army action to keep the peace, will be added to whatever sum had to be raised in the first place.

The ironic thing, though, is that, by and large, the people who will be on the road protesting are those who will not be bearing the brunt of the tax burden. Granted, the cost of living will be raised across the board, but the people who will feel it most in their pockets, both in terms of being taxed at the source of their income and having to pay higher prices for goods and services, is the middle class.

And it is the members of this middle class who, by and large, have to park their cars and walk (or simply stay put where they are) when there is a riot of any sort, including one of those widespread ones for taxes.

Actually boycotting particular goods and services is simply a better way to protest tax increases. however, we suspect that the people who are best at rioting would not be satisfied with that.

After all, isn't simply creating mayhem the objective in the first place?