Well, blondmike, perhaps the reason the services you get from Oakland aren't worth shit is because you're not paying 10 to 20K in property taxes! I understand the impetus behind Prop 13--a boom in housing costs like what we've seen in the last few years makes it look like, without Prop 13, the government would just get a "windfall." But property values directly affect the cost to governments. Most of government spending doesn't go to raw materials or energy, because they're not making stuff. Most government spending goes to personnel. Personnel demand higher wages when the cost of housing goes up. …
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mschmidt
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Now, for the main topic of the article: here's an example of how we are like servants. I'm in higher education. In the last 15-20 years, the buzzword in higher education is "assessment." Now, professors have been handing out grades since time immemorial, but "assessment" is different. Sort of. You can give 25% of your class As but now you have to prove to the state or the accrediting agency that they actually deserved those As. Sounds sensible, in some ways--who wants grade inflation to devalue a college degree? But I deeply suspect that's not the real reason for the "assessment" …
Posted to We Are All Waiters Now
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Please explain how a tax on wealth in the form of property is regressive.
Posted to We Are All Waiters Now
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Also, how will privatization improve efficiency? Privatization means less public oversight. Most people I know who have worked in both private and government settings say that there really isn't much of a difference--people are incompetent all over. The stories of waste, mismanagement, laziness and stupidity are pretty much indistinguishable whether they come from government workers or employees of private firms. Enron was not a government agency! Tyco is not a government agency!
Posted to We Are All Waiters Now
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"All you overburdened, underpaid, over-educated remnants of a recessive meritorious gentry make my poor, proletarian heart swell with sorrow. Time to break out the violins and play a mournful dirge to your shattered dreams of unrequited affluence." The idea of unrequited affluence is an interesting one; if "unrequited love" is when you love someone, and they don't love you back, is "unrequited affluence" when you're wealthy, but you don't get anything back for all your wealth? Well, that's sort of the point of the article, isn't it? Based on what blondemike has written about his tax obligations with and without Prop …
Posted to We Are All Waiters Now
- Joined December 19, 2006
- Last Visit November 1, 2007
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