On 1/3/2011 3:04 PM, Duaine Hechler wrote: > the fire department, paramedics, public health, building inspectors, > > all the things which keep a place fit to live in. > > Or another perspective: All the things which enslave us. 10% of gross > > income is more than enough to fund essential services of government. > > With property tax and every other tax the average rate is approaching > > something like 50%. The question is, how much will be enough? Just a > > little more. You're talking about a lot more than local property taxes. The local part of those taxes is the part which is most effective for the general good. It's when money goes through DC that things get right out of hand. Have you noticed that when an earthquake hits California, the death rate is very small? But in rural China or the Middle East, hundreds or thousands die as big apartment buildings and schools collapse? That's because we have inspectors and code to keep our buildings safe and to prevent contractors from cheating on the quality of concrete and steel. Why did Union Carbide build their huge plant in India, the one which exploded and killed hundreds? Because we had limitations on what they could do to the public near their plant, and inspectors to keep them honest about their discharges. Eliminate them at your peril. Complainers about county taxes seem to me to be people who expect something for nothing, people who take for granted the sometimes invisible web of services which keep them safe and their roads, schools, libraries, and fire departments working. People here on pianotech complain about cheap customers -- how about being too cheap themselves? Susan Kline -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110103/0143e477/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC