(no subject)
so, it's pretty clear that this article is meant as a tea party screed, intended to point out the vast inefficiency and waste that government shackles poor property tax payers with. and it functions really well that way. but it also highlights the lack of understanding - and more importantly, the lack of solutions - the current right wing crazies bring to the table.
let's take this one: "As for the $232.86 we paid for the district’s general levy, that money could buy one firefighter’s helmet ($162) and a pair of protective leather gloves ($62.50)." so what's the solution there? don't give firefighters helmets? give them shoddy cheap ones that melt in a fire, causing death and a lengthy, expensive investigation into the shoddiness of firefighter equipment?
how about, instead, we talk to the corporations making the firefighter helmets, and ask them why their profit margins are so high and their executives paid so well. and go right on up the production chain - there's an oil company behind the plastics in that helmet.
firefighters have taken responsibility for the civic service they provide, and they earn every penny of your tax dollars. they don't earn that many pennies. the paramedics i know (the ones inserting the $76 incubation tube the article mentions) earn $10-$15 per hour, and often work 20 hour shifts.
i say that the profit margin for the corporations making our road paint, firefighter helmets, incubation tubes, and so forth, should be as low as the profit margins of our road workers, firefighters, and paramedics.
http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/dec/06/a-breakdown-of-what-taxes-buy/