Remind me again just who the "Bitter Clingers" are??
Friday, April 29, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Frog Boiling 101
I read this interesting piece this morning and it gave me pause to consider the natural progression of all government and the reasons for citizens to be constantly on watch and suspicious of any taxes, and any government program, for any reason.
As can be surmised, the natural progression of government is to spend more than it takes in and to spend on unnecessary things, and then, instead of cutting spending, simply blame the revenue side, and go out and seek devices that allow you to collect more. Now, the best way to “get more” is NOT to institute a pervasive across the population tax. No, that would excite the passions of too many, and so what is done, as in any good military operation, is to segregate the population into groups, find an attribute unique to that group and then tax the group based on that attribute
For example, if a city want to raise more money from homeowners, they can first start by finding an attribute that gives them a small enough “taxation group”that will be below the critical mass which would incite riot and blowback. Maybe they would institute a special tax on all those like me that have artificial turf in their front yards - claiming increased fire hazard, or reduction of green plant’s or some other made up reason.
Now, because of human nature, my neighbor will not storm city hall on my behalf, and indeed will welcome a tax on my yard because it keeps his taxes low.
After this tax on me in rolled into place, the government can then add another tax against my neighbor's swimming pool, the other guy's 3 car garage, and other people's incandescent lights, stand alone mailboxes, etc. By the end of things, everything is taxed and the citizens are in chains. (Pretty crafty those in government can be, huh?)
Back to Connecticut. This was surely sold as a modest tax to cover the cost of supporting the boating infrastructure, and surely was sold under the “promise” that the revenues would be used for boating purposes. Now, once the mechanism of boiling the frog has been put in place, and the infrastructure for collecting and paying the tax has been implemented without revolt, the government moves into Phase II of the shakedown. This phase consists of raising the taxes and diverting the monies to the general fund where they will be used for other things. Phase III will come when they raise taxes on boats again, under the promise of course that this time their money will have to go into a boat trust fund and this time really, really will not be diverted .... that is, until they want to divert it again.
Lest you think this happens only to boaters in Connecticut, think again. I happens to motorists in Texas whose hiway fuel tax money has been diverted, leaving the state hiway department having to curtail projects. It has happened to engineers in Texas, where, in addition to paying a registration fee, they are now required to pay another general fund fee that is spent elsewhere by the state.
This, all my good readers, is the nature of the STATE. Although at first the state is “by the people, for the people, of the people”, those elected to the functionary positions within the government soon turn to mischief and they inexorably pervert that ideal of “by the people, for the people, of the people” into the ugly reality of people being “of the state, by the state, and for the state.”
This natural tendancy to grow and devour is why we have a constitution - a document that tells us how our government is to be constituted, such constitution (makeup and structure) of the state being that of a state with shackles placed on it. Not to put too fina a point on things it is because the framers knew that a state, unrestrained, would end up devouring the very countrymen that created it in the first place and the people wopuld end up serving the STATE instead of the other way around.
BTW - If you want to see it in fiction set with an array of archetypal characters just read Ayn Rand’s - Atlas Shrugged. If you want to see this in action - just look around.
.
HARTFORD, Conn. April 20, 2011 - Do boaters in the Constitution State deserve to be taxed more? Governor Dan Malloy's proposed 2012 budget adds significant new tax levies for boaters and proposes to eliminate the state boating fund and divert boating registration fees and tax dollars - paid by boaters - into the state's general fund. BoatUS says these changes could threaten the state's vibrant boating industry, and lead many cash-strapped residents to quit boating. Connecticut boaters are urged to send a message to their state legislator this week by going to BoatUS.com/gov/ctaction
As can be surmised, the natural progression of government is to spend more than it takes in and to spend on unnecessary things, and then, instead of cutting spending, simply blame the revenue side, and go out and seek devices that allow you to collect more. Now, the best way to “get more” is NOT to institute a pervasive across the population tax. No, that would excite the passions of too many, and so what is done, as in any good military operation, is to segregate the population into groups, find an attribute unique to that group and then tax the group based on that attribute
For example, if a city want to raise more money from homeowners, they can first start by finding an attribute that gives them a small enough “taxation group”that will be below the critical mass which would incite riot and blowback. Maybe they would institute a special tax on all those like me that have artificial turf in their front yards - claiming increased fire hazard, or reduction of green plant’s or some other made up reason.
Now, because of human nature, my neighbor will not storm city hall on my behalf, and indeed will welcome a tax on my yard because it keeps his taxes low.
After this tax on me in rolled into place, the government can then add another tax against my neighbor's swimming pool, the other guy's 3 car garage, and other people's incandescent lights, stand alone mailboxes, etc. By the end of things, everything is taxed and the citizens are in chains. (Pretty crafty those in government can be, huh?)
Back to Connecticut. This was surely sold as a modest tax to cover the cost of supporting the boating infrastructure, and surely was sold under the “promise” that the revenues would be used for boating purposes. Now, once the mechanism of boiling the frog has been put in place, and the infrastructure for collecting and paying the tax has been implemented without revolt, the government moves into Phase II of the shakedown. This phase consists of raising the taxes and diverting the monies to the general fund where they will be used for other things. Phase III will come when they raise taxes on boats again, under the promise of course that this time their money will have to go into a boat trust fund and this time really, really will not be diverted .... that is, until they want to divert it again.
Lest you think this happens only to boaters in Connecticut, think again. I happens to motorists in Texas whose hiway fuel tax money has been diverted, leaving the state hiway department having to curtail projects. It has happened to engineers in Texas, where, in addition to paying a registration fee, they are now required to pay another general fund fee that is spent elsewhere by the state.
This, all my good readers, is the nature of the STATE. Although at first the state is “by the people, for the people, of the people”, those elected to the functionary positions within the government soon turn to mischief and they inexorably pervert that ideal of “by the people, for the people, of the people” into the ugly reality of people being “of the state, by the state, and for the state.”
This natural tendancy to grow and devour is why we have a constitution - a document that tells us how our government is to be constituted, such constitution (makeup and structure) of the state being that of a state with shackles placed on it. Not to put too fina a point on things it is because the framers knew that a state, unrestrained, would end up devouring the very countrymen that created it in the first place and the people wopuld end up serving the STATE instead of the other way around.
BTW - If you want to see it in fiction set with an array of archetypal characters just read Ayn Rand’s - Atlas Shrugged. If you want to see this in action - just look around.
.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
I want it to "Shutdown"
The news headline fomr 4/8/2011 says
Deadline nears: Shutdown looms without agreement (AP)
Deadline nears: Shutdown looms without agreement (AP)
- 1 hour
I say - go ahead and let it "shut down" because $10 bucks says that a bunch of crap that is not needed will become extinct, and what we have left will be a start toward seeing what the people really have to have out of a federal government and what is just overgrowth and waste
.
Survival of the fittest program Baby!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
God Grant Me ..
I received an email telling me about the FreedomFest gathering in Las Vegas where I could mix and mingle with all the freedom lovers that come to their annual event.
Intrigued, I went to the website and looked things over.
The first thing I noticed was the banner which had a girl running with some kind of flag, and underneath having the phrase
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite
Now, I have always been sensitive to disturbances in the force and so seeing this tag line and experiencing some perturbations in the back of my mind over its use, I clicked around to see just what this thing was all about and who the speakers were going to be.
Saw Judge Napalitonio was going to speak - OK.
Saw Steve Forbes was going to speak - OK
Saw Tom Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods was going to speak --- WTF??.
And thus it was that my mind recoiled. A libertarian fest where one of the speakers was the CEO of Whole Foods, an establishment that is supported by the anti-freedom, liberal voting, collectivist crowd?? Quite frankly I do not care what Wikipedia says about how free market he is .. He created a watering hole for all the foofoo eating, anti-free market thinkers out there IMO.
Thus it was that I sent this email to the event sponsor ....
Intrigued, I went to the website and looked things over.
The first thing I noticed was the banner which had a girl running with some kind of flag, and underneath having the phrase
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite
Now, I have always been sensitive to disturbances in the force and so seeing this tag line and experiencing some perturbations in the back of my mind over its use, I clicked around to see just what this thing was all about and who the speakers were going to be.
Saw Judge Napalitonio was going to speak - OK.
Saw Steve Forbes was going to speak - OK
Saw Tom Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods was going to speak --- WTF??.
And thus it was that my mind recoiled. A libertarian fest where one of the speakers was the CEO of Whole Foods, an establishment that is supported by the anti-freedom, liberal voting, collectivist crowd?? Quite frankly I do not care what Wikipedia says about how free market he is .. He created a watering hole for all the foofoo eating, anti-free market thinkers out there IMO.
Thus it was that I sent this email to the event sponsor ....
Surely you are joking...
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite ???? The national motto of ... wait for it .. wait for it ... FRANCE?????
With Liberte I do not need the other 2! The same people that dreamed up that phrase were the ones that were in the country that instituted the Reign of Terror. This conflation of Liberty with the counter ideas of Equality and Brotherhood is exactly what the socialists and collectivists all over the world have been trying to achieve for the last 200 or so years.... and now a libertarian group uses it in the banner for FreedomFest?????
It matters not a wit to restrict the Equality to equality under the law because no one in the general population whose passions are aroused by words rather than reason, makes that distinction - and that the mob does that is the reason not to use it.
Do you not think that it is for this very reason that Che, and Castro, and all the other socialists and collectivists have at some time, when it suited the purpose of inciting the mob to act in support of their collectivist and anti-liberty agenda, spouted this same pap of Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood???
Art Koenig
A guy that only wants liberty and wants no part of equality .. or brotherhood. Not to put too fine a point on things, I am not equal to my brother nor is he equal to me; furthermore, he is his own keeper not me.
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