Private liquor, public whine

[skellington1]

[Note: I wrote this last weekend, and LJ ate it. I didn't want to waste more time being frustrated, so I let it go... and then LJ spat it back out again, so hey! Have a political rant post you might have otherwise been spared, and blame LJ. Twice

Comments

[skellington1]

In the US in particular, people are stupendously bad at looking outside of their own area for models of how things work differently (or the same) and how we can be informed by them. Or they'll pick an example like yours and refuse to see that maybe, just maybe, there's a middle ground between 30-50% taxation and no income tax at all.

Our state has no income tax -- everything is down to the ~8% sales tax (it's actually lower, but you add on city fees and such), as well as a few even less reliable sources like timber industry money, sell-off of state timber lands, etc. It's a startlingly bad way to run a state, because consumer spending fluctuates more than income, and is much, much harder to project for. The result is that basic services have been cut right and left, tuition (which was already steadily climbing -- my university cost $3500/year when I started $4500/year when I finished) has sky-rocketed, the already piss-poor underfunded state healthcare has been slashed...

...and this woman's bitching that it's 2 dollars more expensive to buy booze.

Aaaand that probably ran a little long, but I work for a publicly funded organization (county property taxes + a cut of timber industry taxes + cut of state timber lands) and my folks both work for the state government, so it's safe to say I hear about these things way too much.

As to no one being happy -- I had a lot of interesting conversations about the cost of public services when I was traveling in Europe. Most amazing were the kids from Scandinavian countries explaining to me that their education was expensive because the state didn't pay for room and board. And a couple in the UK saying their prescriptions and appointments were expensive, until I asked them for actual numbers and told them what mine would be in pounds. Perspective!

[elialshadowpine]

The disturbing thing is that the state health care here has been far far far better than pretty much any other state I have lived in. I've honestly been amazed at how much they've covered for my disabled housemate, and I know they have cut stuff in the last couple years.

[skellington1]

That speaks poorly for the other states. :( Of course, Washington's a better state to be near/below the poverty line in than a lot of others; I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise. It's great that they've come through for your housemate, at least as much as they have!

[elialshadowpine]

Yeah, I lived in Texas which was AWFUL... basically if you weren't pregnant, you were screwed. And then in MA, which is a little better but still... nowhere near as good.