Posted on 08/07/2010 4:42:45 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
They just removed about half of our streetlamps. The electric company is really pissed. It was a big part of their revenue so now they have to raise our rates to make up for it. The electric company has cut a deal with the residents that we can have them back if we want to pay for them ourselves. But yet they continue to fund worthless crap we can’t afford like a multimillion dollar geothermal system for an indoor pool that we don’t even have. But we’re all set in case we ever get one. (s). They spend gazillions of dollars to build parks and fancy up the downtown area and everything is boarded up and the buildings are rotting down because they insist everything has to be done to preserve the historic value and no one can afford to buy one of those rotting buildings and spend a fortune fixing it up the way the historic society wants it done. Its all just crazy.
I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this my dear, but you're not being nearly cynical enough.
L
A society shouldn't be using public funds for schools, "public transit", or libraries.
Those 3 things are not the rightful responsibility of society nor of government.
Private individuals may choose to fund them, but not with public money.
.
Does that imply you are willing to cut Defense Spending to zero?
NO.
I think street lights should be funded by the local government. I agree about the rest of it, though.
It is not a security system so much as it is a wealth transference that is stressing our economy. To put it another way the crooks and social outcasts we have put in office are so busy taking care of “human needs” that they can no longer take care of “human needs!”
That's how government employment works.
When the tax revenues drop off, the administrative fat, which could be cut with no noticeable effect, is left in place. Instead, they cut the muscle - the cops, the prison guards, the libraries, the highways - the knife goes right to the small percentage of government employees that actually do something useful - to 'demonstrate' to the public that no cuts can be made without pain.
Well, the Interstate Hiways are useful. That’s about it. I would trade my tax dollars I have paid over my lifetime for those concrete ribbons, not worth it. The Interstate Hi way system was supposed to be aid with fuel taxes anyway.
When government is forced to cut spending, it always cuts it in a way that causes maximum pain to the public.
You won’t hear about any administrator salaries being cut, let alone cutting any of their jobs altogether. No, and the leather furniture stays too.
Our public library has become a expensive homeless shelter. They bathe in the restrooms, sleep in the stacks, and watch porn on the computers. Far from being a safe place to bring or send children, I wouldn't let mine attend without an adult present.
As a young teen, I spent hours at the local library, reading all types of books in the adult section. It was, and still is, my favorite way to spend an afternoon. But I'd never let my young teens hang out there sfter a local teen was accosted by a homeless man in the restroom.If I want to spend an afternoon reading, I go to BArnes and Noble; or read whatever I want on line. I haven't been to the public library in years.
And the classic history and science books I read as a teen are long gone,too, replaced by popular reading materials. On my last trip, I searched in vain for the biographies of American heroes for my kids. There were 20 biographies of Brittney Spears, and Tiger Woods, and 50 Cent; but none of Revolutionary heroes Mad Anthony Wayne, Frances Marion or even Nathaniel Greene, hardly a bit player in the Revolution.
Nobody goes there any more, and if Camden's library is anything like ours, and I bet dollars to donuts that it is, then it deserves to die.
Dont worry...the liberals want us to head back to the stone-age with their Mother Gaia enviro-religion so it’s all good.
This is why they say the new stimulus will save the jobs of teachers. Teachers? Why we have to make sure our children are taught,we have no choice but to save teachers jobs.
So no state is overstaffed elsewhere. No state is spending money on things it shouldn’t like,hey,illegals? The teacher card. When the racism card just won’t work.
How many school administrators have been added over the last two decades? That is pure fat to be cut - but those are also the most cherished positions in the public education system. So of course the teachers who actually teach are cut, while the admin jobs are left in place.
They spend too much on useless government employees working on useless government programs.
I will trade the public library for the scalps of the scoundrels.
It’s worse than is getting out, the income into states and towns is way way down. Rapid privatization to occur very near future with most ending up in the hands of the connected.
“...Free public internet for job searching, public programs that teach networking, resume writing, etc. Many libraries bring in professional speakers for these kinds of things...”
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I challenge you to visit your closest large urban area and visit
an inner city library and come back here and report on what you see.
(hint: it ain’t pretty)
When I was in first grade and my mom was working, I would come out of school and go to the library on the next block and wait for her to get off work. There was nothing to do there but read. I read all the kid books. Then I read the teen science fiction books. By the time 5th grade rolled around, I was checking out physics books from the adult section. The advantage of no TV available.
Camden is not the only place.
Idiots elected to office overwhelmingly everywhere are financial ignoramuses who created the problems of today and seem determined to make sure that the problems continue indefinitely.
There are too many mistakes to cover here, so I'll just conclude with a modest proposal, I've made many times before; it addresses the false premise that pure democracy can work, and applies the wisdom of the majority.
Let the politicians and the public employees and the welfare subculture raise taxes to whatever level they want in terms of amount, but make the dividing of the income from the taxpayers mandatory as follows : allow the taxpayers to choose exactly where their money will be spent from a list of 100 items. Among the top ten I would include national defense, roads, bridges, libraries, flood control, disease control, law enforcement, Fire control and education...
BUT...
that does not mean I would allow them to set their own salaries.
All of the players must accept the fact that if their salaries exceed the salaries of their employers, the taxpayer, the system WILL fail. The employer sets the salaries, take it or leave it. No unions allowed.
I reject categorically the notion that people willing to do the work for less are either criminal or dishonest. Criminal, incompetent and dishonest is the current definition of lifetime welfare recipients and public employees.
Oh yes; among the botton ten on my list of distributing my taxes would be politician salaries and retirement, Public employees and their retirement, and institutionalized multi-generational welfare.
Under those circumstances, I would accept any tax increase with equanimity.
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