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AnimusRex -> RE: Why Do Liberals Love Taxes??? (2/15/2010 7:48:27 PM)
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Why do liberals love taxes?
A friend of mine just returned from Haiti, touring and inspecting the ruined buildings on behalf of the aid agencies.
Hait is a place where the rich run everything, but run it poorly. They build the buildings, roads, the bridges, the power plants, and ports, but they do it poorly, in a mixture of "no-bid" contracts to politically favored cronies, in a totally unregulated marketplace. There are no building regulations, and what little there are are not enforced.
When a natural disaster strikes, the government is paralyzed because they have no revenue, and have never bothered to develop a civil service that is well trained or skilled. The wealth class refuses to tax themselves for these services, preferring instead to spend their wealth on mansions, jewels and cars.
There was a time when America worked. Our buildings, bridges, power plants and ports were the envy of the world, when a disaster struck, the American government sprung into action, with teams of skilled experts in logistics, engineering, emergency preparedness all at the ready.
There was a time when America dreamed big- when we thought nothing of building the world's largest dam across the Colorado, when we thought nothing of instituting a Social Security System to care for the elederly, and a Medicare system to care for the poor; When we dreamed of a nationwide system of high speed highways, and the government made it so.
Today in America the government is withering, even as the wealthy class is growing obscenely fat.
When Katrina hit, the government was parlyzed, headed by a man who was chosen mostly for his political cronyism to the President. Even the agencies that could have helped, were anemic from years of budget cuts and mismanagement.
All over America our public buildings, roads, bridges and ports are falling apart, from years of neglect and public mismanagement.
The State of California University system used to be the envy of the world; it used to offer a college education to everyone, no matter how little they earned. Today the same college is out of reach for all but the upper class.
The mantra of the wealthy class and their right wing supporters is to "starve the beast" of government.
What is not realized is how expensive these cost savings are becoming.
The State of Utah is considering eliminating 12th grade to "save" money. the taxpayers will save pennies by eliminating this, yet pay thousands of dollars in tutors and remedial college education for their sons and daughters. Yet even this will pale to the billions the rest of America will lose in lost wages and income that is not being produced by these poorly educated graduates.
The City of Colorado Springs is reverting to the 19th Century and turning out its streetlights for lack of tax revenue.
How long will it be before packs of wild dogs roam the streets for lack of a public animal control, eating piles of garbage that grow higher for lack of a public waste collection service?
We used to pay pennies in taxes for drivers ed in high school; now we pay hundreds for the privatized version.
We used to pay pennies in taxes for emergency rescue teams to take sick people to the hospital; today we pay hundreds of dollars for an ambulance ride.
We used to pay pennies for taxes that supported nutritious school lunches; today the schools invite fast food corporations onto campus to feed our children garbage, and we spend thousands first on the higher priced lunches, then thousands more for medical care on obesity.
There was a time when "Civil Service" was a thing of pride, when people spoke of "good Government" and meant it, when government officials worked for the public good; Under Bush, the Interior Department spoke of the corporations that it was supposed to regulate as its "customers" and literally had drug fueled orgies with them, ignoring the public trust and responsibility. The government has become the groveling servant of the corporate class, tending to their needs first last and always.
The wealthy used to pay higher taxes, and still remain rich; today the CEO of a Wall Street bank pays the same rate as his limo driver and uses the difference to buy a $600 wastebasket or host a Roman orgy that would shame Caligula, while a single mother dies from lack of chemotherapy she can't afford.
If anyone wants to see what a society with a half-starved governent and parasitic wealthy class that takes everything but repays nothing to its host looks like, look at Haiti.
This is the future of America, unless we choose to pay for the services we used to enjoy.
Ask yourself- is the picture below of Haiti or Katrina? Did you ever think there would be a day when an American couldn't tell the difference between our country and the Third World?
I would gladly pay higher taxes if our government could respond to a disaster; if we could have a health care system as good as Canada; if we could have high speed rail as good as China; if once again our schools could be the envy of the world. If only once again our elected officials were the servants of the people and honored the public trust.
If only once again we could tell America and Haiti apart.
[image]local://upfiles/280232/8C25C1CC87B84C949FE91FBEE374ECB8.jpg[/image]
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