Communists

It used to be a ritual for many New Yorkers who wanted to buy clothing - hop in the car, travel to your nearest NJ or CT mall, and buy clothing there, at a lower (read: zero) tax rate. New York State lawmakers (read: a**holes) realized that their exorbitant tax rates were doing much to drive commercial activity away from the state, and were enabling business and economic growth in the surrounding, out of state areas. So NYS legislators passed a law exempting tax on clothing articles under $110 each to bring that business back.

This law is may be about to change - see this article on VIN. Legislators are seriously considering bringing back sales tax on all clothing and doing away with so-called "tax holidays" - periods of time during the year when certain items are exempt from sales tax - in order to plug a multi-billion dollar hole in an overdue budget.

As usual, NYS legislators are showing their true colors: RED. These communist bastards think that the solution to nearly every problem lies in the state's power to levy all manner of taxes, fees and excises. In reality, these blowhards aren't really solving problems by throwing money at them as much as creating new problems by refusing to cut the state's freakishly bloated, corrupt entitlements system. All these idiots know how to do is tax and spend, not cut and save. Want to get fat people slim, and earn some revenue in the process? Tax sugary foods and drinks. Want to help otherwise undeserving people obtain mortgages so that they, too, can live "the American nightmare" (oops - I meant "dream")? Tax mortgages and home financing. Want to throw more money into a failing school system? Tax local properties. And on and on and on.

I have a great idea for Paterson, Silver, Espada, and their rag-tag cast of spineless communist idiots. How about cutting entitlement programs instead of throwing money at them? How about tightening fraud detection to crack down on abuse of the system so people who really need state aid can get it?
How about growing a pair of balls when it comes to dealing with the teacher's union? How about passing a school voucher system to inject a little competition into the education market? How about learning from states like Texas, New Hampshire, and Florida as to how to effectively run a state with minimal individual tax burden (granted the demographics are different but there must be something that can be learned and adapted).

The sad fact is that the lazy, whiny babies in the NYS legislature and the idiots who represent this state in Congress seem to view themselves in unassailable positions and therefore have little incentive to change. All these people know how to do is tax and tax and tax, I truly believe this. They don't even think of drastically altering the state's time-honored tradition of raising and creating taxes by actually cutting programs. This is why I look into my crystal ball and see NYS becoming a failed, bankrupt state in the future - its tax structure is such that it creates little to no incentive for firms to do business in the state and ultimately drives established firms from the state. The individual tax burden that exists to fund all these wasteful entitlement programs will drive residents from the state, leaving fewer households to fund ever growing deficits. That spells doom.

Adam Smith was right. The 'invisible hand' has it's flaws, but it works. It's not by accident that the US has become the economic and political powerhouse that it is in such a short span of time. Capitalism has its flaws, but it WORKS. Reagan had it right - people should be given as much freedom as possible to decide what to do with their money, not governments. Income redistribuition just does not work. Governments have proven time and time and time again to be extremely poor decisors on how to spend other peoples' money and they have little moral right to tell individuals how to spend theirs. Free markets do a far, far better job in apportioning resources than do "central command", essentially government-run economies, such as exists in New York right now.

New York state, as it exists today, is not a state that's worth residing or doing business in from an economic point of view. The return on your the average NYS household's tax investment is staggeringly miniscule. Taxpayer dollars - whether business, sales, or personal - are funding programs that will bring the state to economic ruin, a la California. This article on VIN is just another example of how myopic these legislators can be. They either don't realize or don't care that all they're doing is, to use a tired cliche, rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.


POSTSCRIPT - while I obviously have nothing but vile contempt for the elected nincompoop babyish a**holes that make up the great state of New York's legislative and executive structure, I would somewhat exempt Governor David Paterson from my ire. He's not too bad a fellow and doesn't seem much like all the others: greedy, power hungry, and grasping. He kind of seems to want to do something right by NYS citizens and taxpayers (this is because, in part, he's not elected); he's just terribly weak and incompetent as governor and completely the wrong person for the job.
As for all the other elected officials: if the aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind would come to take them away tomorrow for aeons of experimentation, I'd be very happy. Good riddance.


FNY!!

A good idea, part II

I came across another good idea (boy, the web seems to be full of them).

The Tax Foundation has an article posted regarding complete (as in, not only medical), taxed, controlled legalization of marijuana for personal consumption and use and for cultivation. I think this is a great idea. I think it's ridiculous that we allow (controlled and taxed) consumption and cultivation of tobacco and alcohol which are substances that can do significant damage to a person's body and can impair one's activities - but criminalize and stigmatize marijuana use. Legalized marijuana use and cultivation is now actually a ballot initiative in California.

Billions upon billions of dollars are completely wasted in the law enforcement and counter-terrorism areas of federal and state governments in waging a "war" on marijuana (among other drugs). I say wasted because approximately 100 million Americans admit to have used marijuana in the past - that's one third of the entire population. More and more will use as time passes, I have little doubt. Yet we wage a "war" on this use and spend billions upon billions doing it, with almost zero results. People still use and all manner of crimes still get committed in relation to the cultivation, sale, and use of the drug.

Legalizing marijuana could have numerous beneficial effects. It could increase tax revenue significantly to the states who so desperately need income. It could serve as a cost savings to the federal, state, and local governments by reducing the costs associated with the "war on drugs". It could remove the undeserving social stigma from casual users of marijuana, whose use parallels a casual drinker or smoker (do we stigmatize they guy or gal who goes out for a drink every week??). It could allow easier access to those that need the drug for medical use. It could help reduce or eliminate the violent crime, trafficking and other nasty activities associated with the current cultivation and trade of marijuana (though also eliminate and entire Hollywood genre in the same stroke). Lastly, it could help provide secondary or alternative streams of revenue for  individuals, thereby producing more tax revenue for federal, state, and local governments.

No one's proposing that we just legalize all willy-nilly; that would be inappropriate. What the state of California's ballot initiative proposes is a controlled and taxed legalization, similar to how the state (or almost any other state for that matter) controls and taxes alcohol or cigarettes (no sale, gift, or smoking to or around minors, require license to sell, minimum legal age, can't use while driving or operating machinery, etc). I urge everyone to read or skim through the actual text of the ballot proposal, found here.

I think it's utterly ridiculous that we the people have no problem with allowing people to drink alcoholic drinks and smoke or chew tobacco, and that we don't view a (casual) smoker or drinker as 'bad', but are unwilling to allow a person to smoke marijuana or remove his or her social stigma. Part of that stigma comes as a result of the illegality of the act. Marijuana doesn't have the same horrible side effects as do cocaine, heroin, etc; those substances should be and are illegal. I do understand that allowing marijuana could lead us down a "slippery slope", but we need to recognize that the cost/benefit analysis could probably end up a net positive and that the reality is that many people can and do use the drug.

This post isn't meant as a personal statement on whether or not I think marijuana is good for you or not, or whether smoking it is a great thing or not. I'm just saying that we need to see the realities on the ground and adapt to them, and pursue the policy that's in America's best interests.

What's wrong with this picture?

I heard a story the other day that is probably of some interest to those of us who work for a living and pay our fair share of taxes.

A woman, we'll call her Shaindy, has one kid, is relatively young (20's I think) and has a husband in kollel. She works at an office job somewhere in the NY metro area. She was complaining to someone I know about how she's tired of working, getting up early, rushing to commute, dealing with the day to day work headaches that all of us working folk deal with. She's just plain tired. She mentioned that she was seriously considering stopping to work and going on Section 8/HUD assistance, Medicaid, and food stamp welfare programs and staying home with the children.

Is something wrong with this picture?

Uh... yes. What she should do is either suck it up like we all do (This is the choice she made when she got married) or encourage and convince her hubby to get a job (or a yob ;-)).

Welfare programs already eat up a massive portion of NYS's and NJ's budgets, and are partly to blame for our (NY/NJ metro area for one) ludicrously high state and local taxes. Welfare programs are there IN DIRE CASE someone NEEDS them, they are not there as an "opt-in" lifestyle. No one has the right to choose to go on welfare to live one's religious ideal, and CERTAINLY nobody has the right to go on welfare just to shirk responsibility. This is one of the many problems with our welfare programs today. Welfare programs are noble and necessary because a nation as rich as ours has the responsibility to ensure that people don't die or live sickly lives from starvation and poverty, and FDR was correct in institutionalizing them rather than keep the Hooverian belief that personal and private charities will "come through". These programs have become bloated though and viewed almost as entitlements! They create perverse incentives to not work and not take risks and not pursue jobs and responsibilities. They easily create an indolent attitude that eschews trying to better one's lot and rise from poverty either for fear of losing benefits or from laziness and a belief that that good ol' Unca Sam should take care of me.

This kind of thinking might just not be limited to one individual, unfortunately. There are many things about government waste from the municipal level on up that make me want to scream. But this really makes me mad - my tax $$$ are continuing to support this! It should make all of us honest, hardworking taxpayers really mad, too! While NY and NJ taxpayers groan under onerous tax burdens, while state budgets are in deficit and state governors declare bankruptcy, these programs get more bloated!

Wow, it's funny how you become politically self aware after buying a house and having a kid! ;-)

Speaking of taxes, stay tuned for an eye opening post regarding that issue, BTW. I found a wonderful website that I just HAVE to share with everyone.