So I wrote this long post about how we should get rid of Propostion 13 and i got some pretty hateful comments about my opinion.
Well, let me start off by saying… this is just my freakin’ opinion, people. I’m sure you got an opinion. Why can’t I have one? So if you don’t like my opinion, feel free to click on some ads and go the hell away.
Let me clarify: I am NOT for raising taxes. In fact, I am quite against government taking more dump on this economy and expecting the people to clean up their expensive doo-doo. I am for letting GM die. I am against raising more taxes using education as a “good reason”. I am against government trying to mess with high tech industry. I am against unions and their self-entitlement practices. In fact, I think Obama adminstration does plenty of lip-service when it comes to economic policies and letting capitalism do it’s thing. I don’t work for the government; never have and never will.
I believe in free market capitalism with minimal government intervention.
But guess what? Tax is the cost of living in a civilized society. When your house goes up in flame, who risks his/her neck to put it out? That’ s right, a civil servant called a fireman. When your legal contract isn’t honored, who’s going to hear you out? That’s right, a civil servant called a court judge. When you get robbed, who are you going to call? That’s right, GhostBusters. (Ok, i had to put in there b/c I was on a roll). Ok, maybe not them. But you might want to call a civil servant called a police officer.
Taxes pay for the infracture of the civilized society. Stuff like fire, police, national defense (if a neighboring country invades, are you going to pick up arms and fight to defend this country or are you going to call the Marines?), interstate highways, etc etc.
Yes, granted that the US government and its budget are outrageously bloated, we pay more taxes than we really should. I do not disagree. But who’s going to pay for the civil servants whose job is to serve the society? Would you work for free? I’m certain they won’t either.
But I am against unfair taxation. Prop. 13 is a perfect example. In real life, costs go up. Just because my next door neighbor bought his house 30 years ago does not mean the cost of his kid going the same school system is gonna cost any less than my kid attending the same school. Just because the lady across the street bought the house during WWI does NOT mean that it costs the fire department less money to put out her house fire than mine. Where’s the fairness in that?
This isn’t about raising taxes. It’s about equality in execution of the law. My personal take on taxes is that we should slash taxes to 1980’s level. Less regulation, less retarded social services, no bailouts, no welfare, etc. none of that. Then we will see the US economy soar to a new height.
Here are some comments and my rebuttal
Prop 13 is one of the few ways to keep spending in check here in Cali. Why don’t you talk about the ridiculous pensions paid to the public employees?
Yeah. It’s ridiculous. Pensions are stupid. No such thing as government paying for your retirement till you die. This is free market. Every man should fend for himself.
Infrastructure: Illegal immigration and sanctuary cities! There is where your complaint should start. Every illegal immigrant will drink water, flush a toilet, bathe. They will generate sewage. They will generate trash. They will get sick, and they will commit crimes. Can we afford this TAX on our American citizens?
Yeah, I agree 100%. If you are Native American. (Fact and matter is, we need immigrants. It’s a huge fabric of the American society. But I do agree that we, NOT the government, can do something about this illegal immigration issue.)
Raising taxes only delays the inevitable . We must live within our means.
Amen. (No I did not post that.)
Prop 13 rolled back assessed values to their 1976 levels. Meaning taxes for that house purchased in the 1940’s potentially rose at a much faster rate than 2% per year until 1976. I don’t know what its value would have been at that time and I doubt it would have been much over $100,000, but if we start with $100k in 1978 and work our way to today at 2% per year, we get a current assessed value of over $188,000. That’s a LOT more than in the $20k’s as you imply.
Ok, maybe you’re right. I do not know the exact dollar amount but I do remember it being ridiculously low.
Very good point. But it will never happen, because our government is not for the people anymore, duh.
*nod*
How about getting rid of property taxes completely? Just because someone (say an elderly person) owns a house that’s now expensive, doesn’t mean they are rich. Get rid of sales taxes too, while you are at it, since they hit the poor more than the rich. Do it all with income taxes. Yes, the tax will be higher, but there will be no fudging. We’ll all be paying for the services we get. And cut the state budget back to 2002 levels, if you want to cure the deficit. California wasn’t some wasteland with no services back then.
If you run for governor, I will vote for you.
Prop 13 is being mislead here and hopefully you have thought through this issue. Older / elderly citizens on fixed incomes ’simply’ can not afford / or should not have to paid the taxes on property purchased years ago at todays rate. If you have a problem with the law to bad it is there for a reason to protect against unfair government property taxes. Maybe your efforts should be addressing the ‘waste’ in CA’s government. Personally I just witnessed 5 fire trucks visit a home that was on fire where 1 should have been just fine.
Two thoughts on that
1) The government should not be in business of caring whether or not people can afford to live a certain lifestyle. People with this attitude of “me me,me” self-entitlement are turning this country into a freakin’ Nazi style socialst state. Government needs to back off and let life take its course. I am not saying we should not care as a society about old people. Let free market and (some) people’s good will towards humanity take its course. The more that we engage in this behavior, the more that the government will need to tax good law abiding people with income to pay for those who are constantly looking for handouts.
2) Fire trucks - *sigh* Tell me about it. Every time I see CalTrans idiots fixing something along the road, there’s usually 4-6 people. 3-5 managers (probably), 1 guy just looking lost, and 1 guy actually doing ANY work.
Go F yourself.
I tried. It’s harder than it looks. If you figure out a way, let me know. I’m open to hearing it.
PS: I’m just a schmuck with a blog. So don’t listen to any of this crap I just wrote. Instead, ask Warren Buffet.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.freshsupercool.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png)
Tweet This Post
Recent Comments