My company is switching health care plans, which means the employees get less and pay more. This reinforces my firm belief that this nation needs some sort of universal health care system. I cannot and do not believe that there is no way to provide each and every citizen with some sort of bare bones health insurance, even if it's only catastrophic coverage. This nation designed a bomb that blew up a city (two, actually) and landed people on the frickin' moon, so I think it's capable of designing a system of universal health care that is not a total disaster.
This has got me thinking about taxes. You will never hear me complain about the amount of taxes I pay. Why? Because I am less concerned with the amount that I pay than with the use to which that amount is put. In my personal life, I am concerned less with saving money than I am with getting full value for the money I spend; therefore, I don't mind spending a dollar on X as long as I get a dollar's worth of value from X. I don't understand people who just want lower taxes, probably because these are many of the same people who complain when services are lacking. I recall a referendum in Cherry Hill earlier this year in which the school board asked to raise taxes, a request the voters predictably refused. The board then began proposing cuts to various services (like busing) and the voters went bonkers. How do they think these buses are maintained? The Bus Fairy? Tax revenue pays for these buses, and when there is a lack of revenue there will be a lack of buses. Not hard to understand, right?
I'm aware that the government is hardly tops when it comes to trimming fat and preventing waste, but at the same time people need to understand that you don't get a high level of service without higher taxes. I also notice (and this will no doubt get me into trouble) that it's often those on the higher end of the income scale who bitch the loudest. That dovetails into another observation of mine, but since this post is already too damned long I will hold off for another time.
1 comment:
Tying school funding to voters is yet another "Wedge" attempt to cripple public schools. Of course when you fund religious schools, you must include Muslim schools and that, the school-choice people can't stomach.
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