We all complain about taxes and we all would like to pay less taxes or none at all.
But what happens when we pay less taxes?
We won’t have the public streets and highways that we want to be in pot-holeless condition.
We wont’t have fire departments coming to put out our house-fires or the neighbors’ house-fires that might expand to our house. Does that give you a clue why tax supported fire departments are a good idea? If not, consider how safe your house would be if you were the only one on your block who paid the fire department.
The same holds for police and snowplowing and street cleaning and … Would you want to be responsible for clearing the snow from the street in front of your house?
And the irony of ironies is that the “conservatives” who complain the loudest about taxes for things they don’t like want to to throw money at the military, especially if it means a military base in their district.
Oh, yes! If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you're rich, maybe your daddy paid the teacher. If you're not rich, hundreds and thousands of tax-paying citizens paid the teacher. Or, the poor kid whose education you helped pay for in your middle-age may be the doctor that saves your life in your old age.
Showing posts with label police. Show all posts
Showing posts with label police. Show all posts
Monday, February 05, 2018
Tuesday, March 07, 2017
Trucks, taxes, and benefits
I don’t drive on freeways much anymore, but are there still trucks that have signs on the back that state something like “This truck pays $4,362 per year in taxes.”
Shouldn’t there also be a sign that says the government provides $x,xxx per year in services to this truck”?
What is the pro-rata cost of highways for each truck? Snow-plowing? Police investigation of crashes? Police protection of auto drivers harassed by tailgating truckers?
It seems more that someone benefits from taxes the more they complain about taxes. Corporations want well-educated employees, but they don’t want to pay the taxes to educate future employees. They want to sue those they claim have wronged them, but they don’t want to pay the taxes for courts. They want laws to protect their interests, but don’t want to pay the costs of enforcement.
Corporations and others want a military that costs more than then next two or three next largest militaries, but they don’t want to pay the taxes to support that military.
Shouldn’t there also be a sign that says the government provides $x,xxx per year in services to this truck”?
What is the pro-rata cost of highways for each truck? Snow-plowing? Police investigation of crashes? Police protection of auto drivers harassed by tailgating truckers?
It seems more that someone benefits from taxes the more they complain about taxes. Corporations want well-educated employees, but they don’t want to pay the taxes to educate future employees. They want to sue those they claim have wronged them, but they don’t want to pay the taxes for courts. They want laws to protect their interests, but don’t want to pay the costs of enforcement.
Corporations and others want a military that costs more than then next two or three next largest militaries, but they don’t want to pay the taxes to support that military.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
A rebuttal of the Star Tribune misuse of the term “free market”
I submitted the following commentary to the Star Tribune a day or two after D.J. Tice’s column which I considered another misuse of the term “free market”. I have not seen it published yet. Could it be that “free marketers” don’t like reminders of true free markets?
D.J. Tice’s column “ A foolish system and your money …” leads me to believe he is one of those who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. I wonder if he has considered the number of times in a day that he has benefitted from public goods.
Did he drive on a freeway to work? Did he pay the full cost of his share of the road, the full cost of the pollution from his car, and the cost of the loss of tax revenues from the houses that once were above the trenches that divide up our cities?
Did he take a bus to work? His fare would have only paid part of the cost. But the bus is a public good in that it reduces the number of cars on the road. If he had to pay the full cost of his bus ride, he probably wouldn’t take the bus.
Did he walk to work? Did he pay a toll for the sidewalk he used? Did he put a coin in the traffic lights so that he could cross the street?
Let’s hope that his house never catches fire. He would not be happy paying the full cost of the fire department response. If his neighbor had the misfortune of a fire, would he help pay the cost of the fire department whose response kept the fire from spreading to his house?
I am a graduate of the Cleveland Public School System. I doubt that my mother could have afforded the full cost of the schooling that qualified me to attend college. Many other people, some childless, helped pay the cost of my education.
I could not have afforded the tuition at Case Institute of Technology. A foundation paid full tuition the first year. I flunked out of Case but the foundation kept paying a fraction of my tuition at Ohio Wesleyan University. At both schools, many donors provided money to keep the tuition down somewhat. Three-percent federal loans also helped. I managed to get back to Case for graduate school with a graduate assistant position. I doubt any of the work we did paid in full for our jobs and tuition.
Companies are demanding more and more highly specialized “skills”, but they are not willing to train people. They expect the public schools and the colleges and universities to train these employees. But they don’t want to pay the taxes for the public schools and colleges, institutions that would help those who can’t afford the elite institutions. The smaller the pool of potential employees, the harder it is to find “qualified” employees.
Could he pay out of pocket for each and every medical visit he needed: office or hospital? For those of us with well-paying jobs, health insurance pays for a chunk of the care, if not all. But what about people who have jobs with no health insurance? Has he considered that their lack of health insurance benefits him with lower prices? (Or the owners with much higher profits.)
What if there were a deadly epidemic that had no respect for wealth? How might such an epidemic start? Maybe those who first became ill could not afford the health care, health care that would have reduced their chances of spreading their disease.
Modern economies run a large array of public goods: roads, schools, police, fire, and regulatory inspections. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes supposedly said, “I like taxes; they buy me civilization.”
D.J. Tice’s column “ A foolish system and your money …” leads me to believe he is one of those who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. I wonder if he has considered the number of times in a day that he has benefitted from public goods.
Did he drive on a freeway to work? Did he pay the full cost of his share of the road, the full cost of the pollution from his car, and the cost of the loss of tax revenues from the houses that once were above the trenches that divide up our cities?
Did he take a bus to work? His fare would have only paid part of the cost. But the bus is a public good in that it reduces the number of cars on the road. If he had to pay the full cost of his bus ride, he probably wouldn’t take the bus.
Did he walk to work? Did he pay a toll for the sidewalk he used? Did he put a coin in the traffic lights so that he could cross the street?
Let’s hope that his house never catches fire. He would not be happy paying the full cost of the fire department response. If his neighbor had the misfortune of a fire, would he help pay the cost of the fire department whose response kept the fire from spreading to his house?
I am a graduate of the Cleveland Public School System. I doubt that my mother could have afforded the full cost of the schooling that qualified me to attend college. Many other people, some childless, helped pay the cost of my education.
I could not have afforded the tuition at Case Institute of Technology. A foundation paid full tuition the first year. I flunked out of Case but the foundation kept paying a fraction of my tuition at Ohio Wesleyan University. At both schools, many donors provided money to keep the tuition down somewhat. Three-percent federal loans also helped. I managed to get back to Case for graduate school with a graduate assistant position. I doubt any of the work we did paid in full for our jobs and tuition.
Companies are demanding more and more highly specialized “skills”, but they are not willing to train people. They expect the public schools and the colleges and universities to train these employees. But they don’t want to pay the taxes for the public schools and colleges, institutions that would help those who can’t afford the elite institutions. The smaller the pool of potential employees, the harder it is to find “qualified” employees.
Could he pay out of pocket for each and every medical visit he needed: office or hospital? For those of us with well-paying jobs, health insurance pays for a chunk of the care, if not all. But what about people who have jobs with no health insurance? Has he considered that their lack of health insurance benefits him with lower prices? (Or the owners with much higher profits.)
What if there were a deadly epidemic that had no respect for wealth? How might such an epidemic start? Maybe those who first became ill could not afford the health care, health care that would have reduced their chances of spreading their disease.
Modern economies run a large array of public goods: roads, schools, police, fire, and regulatory inspections. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes supposedly said, “I like taxes; they buy me civilization.”
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Quote on violence
"The moment any person comes to accept as justifiable an act of violence upon another — whether physical, spiritual or otherwise — that person has already lost the moral battle, even if he is currently winning the somatic one."
Charles M. Blow, New York Times, 2016-07-10
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/11/opinion/a-week-from-hell.html
My comment: Several years ago I gave a ski lesson to a retired English policeman. He told me that in over twenty years he never drew his gun.
What kind of society are we that police in any given U.S. city draw their guns more often than this Brit did in twenty years as a municipal police officer.
Charles M. Blow, New York Times, 2016-07-10
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/11/opinion/a-week-from-hell.html
My comment: Several years ago I gave a ski lesson to a retired English policeman. He told me that in over twenty years he never drew his gun.
What kind of society are we that police in any given U.S. city draw their guns more often than this Brit did in twenty years as a municipal police officer.
Wednesday, May 07, 2014
Shoot first, then call cops?
The latest incident of gun owners taking the law into their own hands happened in Missoula, Montana. A German exchange student was killed because he foolishly tried on a lark to snitch something from a garage. See “An Open Garage, a Dead Exchange Student and a New Debate on Self-Defense”, Jack Healy, New York Times, 2014-05-07
What is is about some gun-owners that they follow the supposed credo of the 20th Century Westerns to shoot first, ask questions second?
The most egregious killing was by Byron David Smith of Little Falls, Minnesota. He not only shot teen-age, unarmed invaders multiple times, but he waited three days before calling the police. He didn’t want to bother them on Thanksgiving!!! See “Bryon David Smith killings”. Smith was sentenced to life without parole.
Yoshihiro Hattori, killed in Baton Rouge in 1992 for going to the wrong house, didn’t receive similar justice. His killer, Rodney Peairs, was acquitted. He admitted at trial that he didn’t call the police first. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Yoshihiro_Hattori. His parents did receive a cash settlement that they used for funds for high school students to visit Japan and for gun control. Peairs had said that he would never own a gun again.
This same Wikipedia article has a couple other cases of foreign visitors being killed by guns, including one who knocked on a door to ask for directions.
Maybe it was the movie Westerns of the 20th Century that fostered this cult of “self-defense”. See “How the Gunfighter Killed Bourgeois America”, Ryan McMaken.
What is is about some gun-owners that they follow the supposed credo of the 20th Century Westerns to shoot first, ask questions second?
The most egregious killing was by Byron David Smith of Little Falls, Minnesota. He not only shot teen-age, unarmed invaders multiple times, but he waited three days before calling the police. He didn’t want to bother them on Thanksgiving!!! See “Bryon David Smith killings”. Smith was sentenced to life without parole.
Yoshihiro Hattori, killed in Baton Rouge in 1992 for going to the wrong house, didn’t receive similar justice. His killer, Rodney Peairs, was acquitted. He admitted at trial that he didn’t call the police first. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Yoshihiro_Hattori. His parents did receive a cash settlement that they used for funds for high school students to visit Japan and for gun control. Peairs had said that he would never own a gun again.
This same Wikipedia article has a couple other cases of foreign visitors being killed by guns, including one who knocked on a door to ask for directions.
Maybe it was the movie Westerns of the 20th Century that fostered this cult of “self-defense”. See “How the Gunfighter Killed Bourgeois America”, Ryan McMaken.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Who will you thank at Thanksgiving?
Most people will give thanks for their Thanksgiving dinner to God and to the preparers. Consider all the others who helped make your dinner possible.
First, consider the people who built the roads for you to get to the store and all those who paid taxes for those roads, both now and long ago.
Consider the people at the grocery store who stocked the shelves, coolers, and freezers with all the food you bought and who checked you out and bagged your groceries.
Consider the people who drove the trucks on the above-mentioned roads to deliver the food to the grocery store.
Consider the people in the warehouses who unloaded the goods from one set of trucks coming from processors, stacked them, and then loaded them on another set of trucks for delivery to local stores.
Consider the people who drove the trucks on the above-mentioned roads to deliver the goods to a warehouse. Sometimes they are driving long hours under a deadline.
Consider the people who processed the food at a cannery, a packager, or a slaughterhouse. Many of them work under conditions and wages you wouldn’t tolerate.
Consider the people who drove the trucks on the above-mentioned roads to deliver the produce or animals to a cannery, a packager, or a slaughterhouse.
Consider the state and federal inspectors who try to enforce those “burdensome” regulations so that you have safe food, uncontaminated by unwanted organisms and chemicals.
Consider the environmentalists who want to reduce the contaminants in our air and water that could make your food less healthy.
Consider the people who picked the fruit and vegetables that are on your Thanksgiving table. Some of them worked in air-conditioned harvester cabs; others of them picked by hand so long that they wondered if they could stand straight at the end of the day. Some of them owned the land they worked and kept any profits. Some worked seasonally at wages you wouldn’t tolerate.
Consider the people who ran the farms. Some of them were corporate managers and some of them were resident farmer-owners. These latter took many risks to produce your food besides the general risk of physical injury. Was the weather going to be just right to give a great crop? Were the market prices going to be favorable enough to pay their bank loans and still have money left over to live on until the next crops came in?
Consider the local bankers who made many of the loans to farmers. Did they evaluate the risk properly so that the bank would have enough profit to continue the next year? Now savings account interest is a joke, but when it was a decent return would the banker have enough profit to pass on to his or her savings customers?
Consider all those who contribute indirectly to your having an enjoyable meal.
If the weather is bad, consider all the snowplow operators who work long, weird hours so that you or your guests could get safely to wherever your Thanksgiving meal will be.
Consider the police who are out patrolling while you travel or are eating.
Consider the firefighters who may have to jump up from their meal at moment’s notice because somebody knocked over a candle or burned themselves with hot food.
Consider the complexity behind some of our simple pleasures. Without the efforts of hundreds and thousands of people we may never meet, we would have to go out ourselves to grow and harvest what we enjoy in good company in a warm house.
Also posted on the Reader Weekly website at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2013/11/21/2479_party_of_one-6.
First, consider the people who built the roads for you to get to the store and all those who paid taxes for those roads, both now and long ago.
Consider the people at the grocery store who stocked the shelves, coolers, and freezers with all the food you bought and who checked you out and bagged your groceries.
Consider the people who drove the trucks on the above-mentioned roads to deliver the food to the grocery store.
Consider the people in the warehouses who unloaded the goods from one set of trucks coming from processors, stacked them, and then loaded them on another set of trucks for delivery to local stores.
Consider the people who drove the trucks on the above-mentioned roads to deliver the goods to a warehouse. Sometimes they are driving long hours under a deadline.
Consider the people who processed the food at a cannery, a packager, or a slaughterhouse. Many of them work under conditions and wages you wouldn’t tolerate.
Consider the people who drove the trucks on the above-mentioned roads to deliver the produce or animals to a cannery, a packager, or a slaughterhouse.
Consider the state and federal inspectors who try to enforce those “burdensome” regulations so that you have safe food, uncontaminated by unwanted organisms and chemicals.
Consider the environmentalists who want to reduce the contaminants in our air and water that could make your food less healthy.
Consider the people who picked the fruit and vegetables that are on your Thanksgiving table. Some of them worked in air-conditioned harvester cabs; others of them picked by hand so long that they wondered if they could stand straight at the end of the day. Some of them owned the land they worked and kept any profits. Some worked seasonally at wages you wouldn’t tolerate.
Consider the people who ran the farms. Some of them were corporate managers and some of them were resident farmer-owners. These latter took many risks to produce your food besides the general risk of physical injury. Was the weather going to be just right to give a great crop? Were the market prices going to be favorable enough to pay their bank loans and still have money left over to live on until the next crops came in?
Consider the local bankers who made many of the loans to farmers. Did they evaluate the risk properly so that the bank would have enough profit to continue the next year? Now savings account interest is a joke, but when it was a decent return would the banker have enough profit to pass on to his or her savings customers?
Consider all those who contribute indirectly to your having an enjoyable meal.
If the weather is bad, consider all the snowplow operators who work long, weird hours so that you or your guests could get safely to wherever your Thanksgiving meal will be.
Consider the police who are out patrolling while you travel or are eating.
Consider the firefighters who may have to jump up from their meal at moment’s notice because somebody knocked over a candle or burned themselves with hot food.
Consider the complexity behind some of our simple pleasures. Without the efforts of hundreds and thousands of people we may never meet, we would have to go out ourselves to grow and harvest what we enjoy in good company in a warm house.
Also posted on the Reader Weekly website at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2013/11/21/2479_party_of_one-6.
Friday, February 08, 2013
Looks can be deceiving
When I see a picture in the newspaper of Christopher Jordan Dorner, I think of someone who one could swap lots of funny stories with. It's hard to believe that he is a former LAPD officer who has gone on a rampage, killing at least three people and wounding others.
Saturday, August 04, 2012
A modern parable of the Good Samaritan
man was robbed, beaten, and left for dead late one evening in a downtown.
A conservative drove by in his SUV, rolled down the window, and shouted, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!"
A liberal drove by in his Prius, rolled down the window, and shouted, "The government will by soon to help you."
A homeless man walked by and asked, "Can I help?" The beaten man could barely whisper, "Please!" The homeless man, seeing all the cuts and bruises, said, "I'll be right back!"
He went to a public restroom to get some paper towels. The restroom only had hand dryers. The homeless man tried a second and then a third public restroom. The third had paper towels. He grabbed a couple dozen, moistened half of them, and ran back to the beaten man.
The homeless man used the wet paper towels to wipe away the blood and to soothe the bruises. He used the rest of the paper towels to dry the man up.
The homeless man tried to help the beaten man up, but the man couldn't stand. The homeless man knelt down, put the beaten man's arms around his neck, and stood up. He carried the beaten man on his back nearly a mile to the nearest hospital.
The homeless man deposited the beaten man at the emergency room, explained what he had found, what he did, and walked out the door.
One nurse asked another who the man was who brought the beaten man in. The other replied, "I don't know, but the beaten man is City Councilor Tightwad. He voted last year to cut the city's shelter, police, and fire budgets in half."
A conservative drove by in his SUV, rolled down the window, and shouted, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!"
A liberal drove by in his Prius, rolled down the window, and shouted, "The government will by soon to help you."
A homeless man walked by and asked, "Can I help?" The beaten man could barely whisper, "Please!" The homeless man, seeing all the cuts and bruises, said, "I'll be right back!"
He went to a public restroom to get some paper towels. The restroom only had hand dryers. The homeless man tried a second and then a third public restroom. The third had paper towels. He grabbed a couple dozen, moistened half of them, and ran back to the beaten man.
The homeless man used the wet paper towels to wipe away the blood and to soothe the bruises. He used the rest of the paper towels to dry the man up.
The homeless man tried to help the beaten man up, but the man couldn't stand. The homeless man knelt down, put the beaten man's arms around his neck, and stood up. He carried the beaten man on his back nearly a mile to the nearest hospital.
The homeless man deposited the beaten man at the emergency room, explained what he had found, what he did, and walked out the door.
One nurse asked another who the man was who brought the beaten man in. The other replied, "I don't know, but the beaten man is City Councilor Tightwad. He voted last year to cut the city's shelter, police, and fire budgets in half."
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Friendly government service
After I wrote "Customer Service Department?" I thought about the courteous service we received after our car was dinged, both from the medical center security and the Duluth Police. I thought I had mentioned it this in my blog "Premonitions and coincidences", but I hadn't.
I did send a thank you to the Duluth Police Dept. naming the officer who wrote the report. A few days later I received a personal thank you from the police chief, Gordon Ramsay.
I did not send a thank you to the medical center. I did that before I finished writing this.
I did send a thank you to the Duluth Police Dept. naming the officer who wrote the report. A few days later I received a personal thank you from the police chief, Gordon Ramsay.
I did not send a thank you to the medical center. I did that before I finished writing this.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Prof. Gates and Sgt. Crowley: So many editorial assumptions
The blogosphere and the editorial pages are filled with commentary favoring one or the other these men. None of the commentators were there and can only conjecture if one or the other or neither was right.
The closest thing we have to being there is a single photo. Gates has his hands cuffed in front and appears to be shouting, a white officer has his hand on Gates back, and a black officer is in the foreground looking stern.
If Gates has his hands in front, I would assume that officers didn't consider him dangerous. The hand on Gates back looks more like the officer is guiding Gates rather than shoving him.
Then we have a second picture of five or six Cambridge police officers. The same black officer who was in the first picture is standing at Sgt. Crowley's side. I would think that this officer's presence would imply that he thought Crowley acted properly.
Third, we have that Gates and Crowley have agreed to meet, which means they are willing to listen to each other.
Outside Cambridge the opinions rage on. Crowley's wrong and Gates is right. No, Crowley's right and Gates is wrong.
We can assume two other things. Gates was tired and irritated because he had returned from a long trip and encountered a stuck door. Crowley responded to a call and began by following usual procedure.
What was it Crowley said? His only mistake was not knowing who Gates was.
The closest thing we have to being there is a single photo. Gates has his hands cuffed in front and appears to be shouting, a white officer has his hand on Gates back, and a black officer is in the foreground looking stern.
If Gates has his hands in front, I would assume that officers didn't consider him dangerous. The hand on Gates back looks more like the officer is guiding Gates rather than shoving him.
Then we have a second picture of five or six Cambridge police officers. The same black officer who was in the first picture is standing at Sgt. Crowley's side. I would think that this officer's presence would imply that he thought Crowley acted properly.
Third, we have that Gates and Crowley have agreed to meet, which means they are willing to listen to each other.
Outside Cambridge the opinions rage on. Crowley's wrong and Gates is right. No, Crowley's right and Gates is wrong.
We can assume two other things. Gates was tired and irritated because he had returned from a long trip and encountered a stuck door. Crowley responded to a call and began by following usual procedure.
What was it Crowley said? His only mistake was not knowing who Gates was.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
The sorry state of foreign languages in the United States
I went to the UMD library today for another purpose, but before I left, I scanned the available newspapers. There were only two foreign language newspapers: Le Monde and Le Monde Diplomatique. They used to have Die Zeit, Dagens Nyheter (Swedish), and a Spanish language newspaper or two.
I knew UMD* had dropped Dagens Nyheter a few years ago. I found that surprising because they generally have at least a half dozen students from Sweden. In fact, I would often hear Swedish in the hallways.
I suppose that there was no demand. That is sad that so few people are interested in reading material in other languages.
The good news is that the Rochester Police recently hired a woman from Superior WI. Her education and experience includes a major in modern Arabic from the Defense Language Institute and five years as an Arabic translator for the Army. Click here for the story.
Why would the Rochester Police need an Arabic speaker? The Mayo Clinic draws people from all over the world, including many Arab countries.
* University of Minnesota, Duluth
I knew UMD* had dropped Dagens Nyheter a few years ago. I found that surprising because they generally have at least a half dozen students from Sweden. In fact, I would often hear Swedish in the hallways.
I suppose that there was no demand. That is sad that so few people are interested in reading material in other languages.
The good news is that the Rochester Police recently hired a woman from Superior WI. Her education and experience includes a major in modern Arabic from the Defense Language Institute and five years as an Arabic translator for the Army. Click here for the story.
Why would the Rochester Police need an Arabic speaker? The Mayo Clinic draws people from all over the world, including many Arab countries.
* University of Minnesota, Duluth
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