New Jersey Governor Chris Christie strongly suggests that you go before taking to the New Jersey non-toll roads. As another example of how states are selling or reducing basic services in this economic crisis, Christie will close the last two restrooms to save $270,000.
You can still use a bathroom on the tollroads like the New Jersey turnpike. However, on the non-toll roads it is back to the state of nature in New Jersey. This may why Christie tried not to laugh when he is on the road and his reaction to attempts at humor, here.
I will add my usual complaint that we have spent hundreds of billions in these two wars while we cannibalize on our resources at home with states selling off public land and ending basic public programs, here.
For the full story, click here
Byron–
Maybe you should move up to an area where northeastern liberal elitist democratic socialists/quasi-communists live. You might have a better quality of life here. 🙂
************
“As far as public education is concerned it is very inefficient, the statistics I have seen show that less than 30% of the people starting ever receive a degree. Is public education at the university level for students or for faculty?”
Not sure where you got those statistics. Is the same true of all public colleges and universities? For many people who attend public institutions of higher education, it takes them more than four years to complete a degree program because so many have to work full-time jobs while attending school to pay for their tuition.
**********
“I probably grew up with less than you had, I am not a rich person, just middle class.”
Maybe you had less than I had growing up–maybe not. I’m not a rich person either. I still live in the same “starter” house my husband and I bought more than thirty years ago.
I have not said that government is not necessary, no where have I even intimated that no government is required. Governments proper function is to act as a referee to protect contracts and other interactions among citizens and national defense.
There cannot be civilization without government. However civilization would be just fine without corporations in their current form. Being that they are a fiction, a tool created by man, corporations are a tool that can be either modified or disposed of entirely by man at will. The same cannot be said of government unless one simply wishes to invite anarchy as anarchy is the polar opposite of government.
Elaine:
I probably grew up with less than you had, I am not a rich person, just middle class. But I see government as a drag on what is possible. In the county I live in government isn’t much more responsive than the techie in a foreign country. They have overspent and are inefficient. The money they waste is shameful and they appear to have no compunction against limiting property rights. They are becoming more and more totalitarian, when I can I plan on leaving and moving to a county less overbearing.
We have to pay for our trash service, I had to pay to have water brought to my house, we don’t have sidewalks, the roads suck, the county is hostile to business, and the county board is more worried about sucking up to DC than addressing local concerns. And to top it off their development policies have resulted in very high property taxes, I could buy a house on a 30 year mortgage in a small town for what I pay every year in taxes.
As far as public education is concerned it is very inefficient, the statistics I have seen show that less than 30% of the people starting ever receive a degree. Is public education at the university level for students or for faculty?
Things are probably better in a small town but look at that eminent domain case on the other thread, every where you turn it seems government is asserting powers they don’t have or are extending the limits of their granted power. When this happens in a corporation you can quit your job if your boss gets uppity. Even if you vote the bums out the b-crats are still there protecting their turf and adding inefficiencies to the system.
Buddha:
If I pay taxes corporations ought to as well. And you know my feelings about K St.
Byron,
“Most Corporations Don’t Pay Income Taxes: GAO
By Richard Rubin, CQ Staff
Most corporations, including the vast majority of foreign companies doing business in the United States, pay no income taxes, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.
During the eight-year period covered by the report, 72 percent of foreign-owned corporations went at least one year without owing taxes, and the same was true for 55 percent of domestic corporations.
Small companies were much more likely to pay no taxes than larger companies. Still, more than 3,500 large domestic corporations — with more than $250 million in assets or $50 million in gross receipts — did not pay taxes in 2005.
The report said about 80 percent of the companies studied paid no taxes because they didn’t generate any profit after expenses. Money-losing companies can legitimately owe no tax, and others can use provisions of the tax code to lower or eliminate their liability.
But the lawmakers who sought the data seized on the report as proof of corporate gamesmanship.
“It’s shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country,” said Byron L. Dorgan , D-N.D., who requested the report along with Carl Levin , D-Mich. “The tax system that allows this wholesale tax avoidance is an embarrassment and unfair to hardworking Americans who pay their fair share of taxes. We need to plug these tax loopholes and put these corporations back on the tax rolls.”
The report covered the period from 1998 through 2005. During that time, corporate income taxes as a share of gross domestic product dipped, from 2.2 percent in 1998 to 1.2 percent in 2003, the lowest share since 1983. But receipts jumped after that, hitting 2.7 percent in 2006 and 2007, according to the Office of Management and Budget. That was the highest share since the late 1970s.
The GAO report also found that foreign-owned corporations were somewhat more likely to report no income than domestic corporations. There are several possible reasons for that. Foreign corporations may be younger, and startups are more likely to have no net income after expenses. They may also be in industries with lower profit margins.”
From http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002937306&parm1=3&cpage=1
And who purchased said loopholes?
Corporations via lobbyists.
Government exists to serve the people, Byron. That’s what our Founding Fathers envisioned and the base system as designed.
Corporations exist to serve their shareholders – citizens or not, ethical or not – and a profit motive. A profit target.
3,500 large domestic corporations — with more than $250 million in assets or $50 million in gross receipts — did not pay taxes in 2005?
Pardon the language, but fuck that and fuck them.
Byron–
We had a municipal light plant that provided our electricity in the city where I grew up and lived as a young adult. My mother still lives in that city today. Her electric rates are much lower than mine. My electricity is provided by a private company.
Speaking of local government: If I have a problem, I can go to city hall and talk to someone. With some of these huge corporations, you usually end having to call a 1-800 number and press a dozen buutons in hopes of reaching a human being you can speak to. Too often, when I do reach a human being on the other end, it’s a person who lives halfway around the world…a person who sometimes doesn’t clearly understand my problem.
Private isn’t always better than public!
I’m a first generation American from a blue collar family. We didn’t have a lot of money. If it hadn’t been for a publicly funded college in a nearby community, I might never have been able to afford a college education. I will be forever grateful that taxpayers of Massachusetts helped provide me with an excellent college education. I contribute as much as I can to that college every year.
What’s so great about corporations?
about the same thing that is so great about government 🙂
they both have problems (government 🙂 ), except one pays the way of the other.
What’s so great about corporations?
Elaine:
I wonder how much those services would cost if they were provided by private companies?
I understand that some things probably cannot be done by a private company, National Defense is one that comes to mind, but most everything else could be.
Why does government have to be involved in any of it? Except national defense. What is so great about government?
Thanks, Gyges. But now I see that this thread is really about public unions. Union bashers need to heed the comments of Buddha and study the history of labor in this country. With regard to both the real and imagined abuses of unions, we need to remember a couple of things:
1. The union movement, more than anything else, eliminated the condition of literal bondage in which most working people and their families found themselves in the age of industrialization.
2. The growth of unions, more than anything else, created a viable middle class in this country.
3. Whenever people form associations, whether we call them unions or corporations, they are capable of gradually becoming powerful enough to adversely impact the public interest. It is then time for legislative action to curtail the abuses.
4. When government believes unions are too powerful, the reaction is always a call for union busting.
5. When corporations become too powerful, no one calls for their dissolution.
Unions exist because employers are not motivated by benevolence; they are motivated by the demands of shareholders. The need for unions will cease only when there are no more employers.
Byron–
I’m more than willing to pay taxes so I can have the following:
– city water
– a sewer system
– streets plowed and/or sanded when it snows
– trash pickup
– a public library
– a quality school system
– fire stations
– police
Those are just things I appreciate on the local level.
Where would we be without bridges, highways, etc.?
Lots of elderly folks like my mother would probably be indigent today if it weren’t for federal programs like Social Security and Medicare.
What I hate to see MY tax dollars spent on is financing preemptive wars and bailing out multi-millionaires who, because of their excessive greediness, nearly destroyed our country’s economy.
As Buddha said labor, unions don’t exert anywhere near the amount of influence on Washington that huge corporations like Exxon do.
Mike,
That’s what I said. Well, it’s a more tactful version of what I said.
We provide public restrooms on public roads because relieving oneself on the side of the road is dangerous.
“but they’re ants”
Cursed multitasking!
Puzzling,
Which lobbyists have the deepest pockets?
Oil, Insurance and Health Care lobbyists. Closely followed by Automotive and Entertainment.
Do unions carry more weight than say The American Heart Association? Yes they do. But their ants compared to Exxon’s elephant.
Not all lobbyists are created equal, Puzz. That’s part of the problem. And that problem is rooted in the exchange of money for access and preferential treatment – no matter if that money is from Exxon (elephant), the AFL-CIO (ant) or Mom’s Bakery (microbial).
I’ve said it before and it merits repeating: lobbying (the Right to Petition) should be limited to natural (or naturalized) citizens and be a form you pick up at the USPS. Your representatives should have X time to respond as to why they are not acting on your requests or to take action by submitting some form of legislative remedy seeking to address your citizen concerns (actually forcing those asshats in Congress to work for a change instead of campaigning 24/7/365). Corporations should not be allowed to lobby PERIOD.
Bdaman:
I should have been more clear, each one of those is around $35,000. If we had an actual free market you might be able to get all those things for $35,000 what with competition and low inflation and a stable business cycle, who knows.
Puzzling:
good stuff.
Byron can you get all this stuff for $35,000 🙂
a kitchen remodel
a year at most colleges
a new car or maybe 2
a small addition to your house
a down payment on a new vacation home
a new boat
new appliances for the kitchen
new furniture for the entire house
a great vacation
If you can, where can I sign up.
Byron,
You’re repeating yourself. If you can explain to me how you would plan to opt out of the benefits you get from living in America, I’ll let you complain about taxes being not voluntary. The benefits aren’t voluntary either.
Sounds to me like you’re forgetting the some of the lessons learned from the Articles of Confederacy. You can’t have a functioning government without granting it the ability to tax.