Makin' things better for the next guy?

Here’s food for thought…..

     A friend recently mentioned that the people, (more specifically the taxpayer), of today needs to step up and fight taxes they think are unfair, and support those that will help “the next guy”, or future generations, I.E. : Infrastructure, better roads, bridges, utilities, parks, schools….

     That all sounds well and good, on the surface, doesn’t it?  Sure it does.  Till you figure out what they are REALLY looking for…. And it assuredly is NOT to improve things for your kids, or your grandkids, unless you think that all cities and towns need to shut down small business, family farms and homes that children were raised in, memories live in, ancestral ghosts live in, all under the guise of “good for the community”….

     What they ACTUALLY want, is to attract more factories, and wealthy inhabitants with big fancy houses, so they can get more money, more taxes and more control. Of course, they may have to take your farm away from you, or your family’s home of decades, or close down a longstanding family business, “for the better good” , so they can sell the property, (or give it), to some developer.  Still think it’s all for the “public good”? 

     Now, to interest those developers, they need more and better infrastructure, which, natch, you have to pay for now.  If you fight the new tax, they just float a bond, rather than actually “raise your taxes”, effectively forcing you to pay for the stuff now, let’s say, over the next 5 years,  that the rich will want later, but never have to pay for.

     We all know about the Gov’t taking people’s property against their will so a factory can build, and a lot of us were for that, but these days, they do it so some Daddy Warbucks can build a new apartment complex, or housing addition, because they see it as “in the best interest of the community” or it’s all part of their “long term plan”.  Isn’t that Communist?  You know it is Brothers and Sisters….

     Now, the infrastructure issues….  Think of tiny Rossville Indiana.  Growing in leaps and bounds…Population doubled in the last 20 years, and along with it, the average household income probably also increased 20-30%, minimum.  Why?  New construction.  Expensive new construction.  We already have a great school.  But to grow much more, the school needs to be even more attractive if they want to attract new home builds by rich people --who pay (in theory) lots of taxes--so you know what they do?  Float a bond for school improvements that adds a hundred a month to MY taxes…. For 5 years. (Bond RESOUNDINGLY defeated, so they float it without voter approval in smaller chunks).  So I starve, and I pay, so the rich can move in for free? Get enough rich people together and my house, my neighborhood, will be an eyesore to them that they will want removed and rebuilt with new homes, “for the common good”…. Then, there’s that infrastructure I mentioned, in Rossville’s case, water.  Let the town grow till the water plant can’t keep up with current standards, then short term finance the updates, again, so that the poor schmuck that already lives there bears the entire burden of the improvement, and  “the next guys in the door” get all the benefits on my dime…….

     That’s all well and good when we assume the “next guy in the door” is our child, or grandchild.  Not so much when they are pushing you, the working class, out the door in favor of the more affluent, is it?  How about when you are being forced out of your property or business by Eminent Domain so they can build, and force you to help pay for, another Government subsidized housing complex (the other extreme)?  Working class forced out, and forced to pay for, a new development where some Daddy Warbucks makes a killing on an apartment complex, “for the good of the community” that the low income portion of our society gets to take advantage of……and not pay for. 

     I’m all for better infrastructure, and better schools, but that isn’t really what all this is about these days.  It’s about money, and the politicians controlling it --now and in the future. They take our money, and give it away to political contributors, cronies, or voting blocks to buy more votes.  

     Either way, the working class gets screwed, and has to pay the bills for those that economically are significantly above, and significantly below, them….  That’s not what our country was founded on, and not where we should be going, is it?  I say, that simply isn’t right.  That has to change.   

You know it’s the truth, ‘cause you got it from yer ol’ buddy Scotty!