Oh, how awesome it must be to vote to steal money from other people when you find yourself in a tight financial spot. I'll be honest -- right now, I'm living paycheck to paycheck and need money for a long list of things:
- To fix my laptop, the hard drive of which died back in June
- To fix or replace my vacuum cleaner, which now refuses to pick up all the cat hair
- To fix or replace my DVD player, which dropped dead without warning a month ago
- To pay off a few hundred bucks in medical expenses on a credit card
- To replace my car's battery, which croaked three weeks ago
- To pay the dentist for a cleaning to arrest the onset of gum disease
- Hell, I'd love a new computer -- doesn't even need to be too fancy, just newer than 1999
- What else? Oh yeah, rent, utilities, groceries, pet supplies, and other such trivial ongoing costs
- Maybe to, like, even save some of my money for when I need a new car, want to buy a house, get married, or do something else unreasonable and extravagant like that
Pshaw, I say. If the state can piss away billions of dollars every year on such alleged categories as education, transportation, and health care while still managing to have shitty schools, decrepit roads, and fucked up, bloated "insurance" schemes -- and then reach into my pocket for more money, I think it should be totally fine for me to vote to allow myself to make an "unauthorized withdrawal" from the bank -- or from any random person on the street, really. I need money; ergo, I am morally justified in taking it from others by force. We will call this "microcivics."*
Seriously, not only is extortionate taxation morally objectionable (according to the Tax Foundation, Michigan ranks 14th highest in tax burden and is estimated to move up to 11th highest now), it's economically suicidal (Michigan ranks dead last in economic growth, with the highest unemployment rate of any state).
It's about more than the fact that I'll now be paying $15 more for my bowling league every time. Some $230 million in new taxes on business services are guaranteed job killers, exacerbating an already bleak economic situation. Plus, with the precedent set for services being taxed, it will be only a matter of time before every conceivable "service" suddenly costs more as the greedy cocksuckers in Lansing reach their grubby fucking hands into everything they can. Oh, and we also get to pay more of the double-dipping income tax on top of that, too.
Meanwhile, the budget-busting union mercernaries who make up the Michigan "Education" Association and various other bureaucrats and government goons continue to suck our blood dry. As Hillsdale professor Gary Wolfram says in today's Detroit News:
Government in Michigan is too expensive for the taxpayer to afford. Research by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has found the average salary and benefits package of Michigan state employees is $75,000, while the comparable figure for private-sector workers is about $58,000. According to the National Education Association, Michigan teacher salaries are behind only those of California and Connecticut.
The budget deal was driven by protecting the salary and benefits for the existing government employees and in the long run will further dampen the flagging Michigan economy.
This bone-headed and morally repugnant tax increase is another great example of why we shouldn't vote for politicians; we should hunt them.
The bullshit increases are set to take effect in December.** Merry Christmas, Michigan, and drop dead. Love, Lansing.
Related
The Detroit News -- New levy taxes 23 services
The Mackinac Center -- Anatomy of a Tax Hike
The Detroit News -- Michigan wakes up to tax increases
Ann Arbor News -- New sales tax imposition angers business owners
The Detroit News -- Recall activists mobilize
* P.J. O'Rourke's term is also great: freelance socialism.
** Don't you also love how whenever there's a "tax cut," it's "phased in" over 237 years, but tax increases always seem to take place immediately (or in some cases, retroactively)?
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