Why don’t we say “many-er?” If it’s so important to underline the distinction between countable items and amounts, why do we indiscriminately apply “more” to both categories?
For that reason the less/fewer rule has always struck me as a matter of style or idiom, and certainly not something to be applied dogmatically to every noun with an “s” on the end. As Doug points out, “taxes” can be understood to refer to an amount and not a collection of items, and there are many other such cases. It seems to me that recently there has been an over-reaction, with people who are afraid of being thought ignorant for saying “less” using “fewer” incorrectly, or at least infelicitously.

Rah rah! I agree!

And I love the boobs example — perfect.

Actually, I could defend the usage “less taxes” on the basis that the word “taxes” in this context (or in the author’s mind) means THE AMOUNT that we pay in taxes, not the numerical count of how MANY individual taxes we pay- I don’t believe that there is any meaningful difference to most people between 100 different small taxes for $1 each and a single tax for $100. What most people care about (and, accordingly, talk about) is the DOLLAR AMOUNT they pay in taxes.

So it could be that the speaker’s intent here is to say that people are upset over their taxes and want to “pay less [money for] taxes” irrespective of whether the taxation in question is in the form of many small taxes or one large tax for an equal total amount.

Actually, this is the only meaning that makes sense- because paying “fewer taxes” is irrelevant- the only logical metric is the total AMOUNT paid in taxes.

How do you folks feel about the ubiquitous “20 items or less” at every check-out line in the U.S.? Do any of you, like me, want to buy a Magic Marker, climb up on the counter and correct it to “20 or fewer items?”

The moderator did add, however, that he might be persuaded to give “fewer” another look if I could submit a sentence wherein the meaning changed depending on whether one used “less” or “fewer.”

So sent them this:

“My girlfriend has fewer boobs than my dog.” This is a simple, non-judgmental statement of anatomical fact, since most dogs have 8 teats whereas most humans have but two.

“My girlfriend has less boobs than my dog.” This awkward but nonetheless understandable sentence is nothing short of a highly explosive put-down of the sufficiency of my girlfriend’s cleavage!

Can anyone else think of a sentence wherein the difference between “less” and “fewer” so obviously changes the meaning?