3 ms·

As someone that lives in the Bay Area, I wouldn't mind it if our taxes were being used effectively. But we do so little with so much. The state of our infrastru

by Reedx 8y ago

As someone that lives in the Bay Area, I wouldn't mind it if our taxes were being used effectively. But we do so little with so much. The state of our infrastructure, public transit and the homeless situation is embarrassing. Especially in SF. The conversation about taxes always seems to be so shallow to the point of being binary. One side saying we need to increase taxes to fix things, the other saying we need to decrease them. What about efficiency? We can do a lot more with what we have.

NDizzle 8y ago
What do you mean we do so little?! Look at all the GREAT THINGS we do. Have you ever considered the privilege of drinking water? We should tax that. What about your car? We should come up with an emissions standard that ONLY APPLIES TO US. 49 state legal? Who's the odd man out? That joker. What about your rifle and pistol magazines? Let's make manufacturers come up with a standard that literally only applies to our state, in the entire world. That will go over well! Droughts? HA! That would require improving and building additional infrastructure for our water reclamation system. Surely we can just let it flow into the ocean - water is water, right? PS: we're going to tax it! Fires? Controlled burns to clear underbrush? You must really hate the environment! Why would you want to burn our precious underbrush?!?!? :(((
moosey 8y ago
Normally a country that is the size of CA, and having the same economy, would have a broader tax base because it wouldn't be losing money to another government, in this case, the federal government of the United States. Of course, there is Prop 13, which greatly harmed the state's ability to collect taxes. Finally, I'd argue that efficiency is impossible as long as the government continues to use the same just-in-time models that the private sector uses. The main problem being that there is no guarantee of work or quality when a contractor is hired by a government. We either need those guarantees or we need to switch back to in-house work.
- RhysU 8y ago
  Normally a country that is the size of CA, and having the same economy, would have to pay for its own military, etc. The Federal government does provide irreplaceable services.
r00fus 8y ago
The problem is Prop13. Corporations (and the wealthy who shelter their wealth in them) use the ol' board of directors shuffle to bypass tax reevaluations. Getting Corps out of Prop13 would massive increase state revenues by taxing the rich. Trickle-down theory is a sham that tries to justify not taxing the rich. It has been proven time and time again to be unsupported by the data.

by Reedx 8y ago

NDizzle 8y ago

What do you mean we do so little?! Look at all the GREAT THINGS we do. Have you ever considered the privilege of drinking water? We should tax that. What about your car? We should come up with an emissions standard that ONLY APPLIES TO US. 49 state legal? Who's the odd man out? That joker. What about your rifle and pistol magazines? Let's make manufacturers come up with a standard that literally only applies to our state, in the entire world. That will go over well! Droughts? HA! That would require improving and building additional infrastructure for our water reclamation system. Surely we can just let it flow into the ocean - water is water, right? PS: we're going to tax it! Fires? Controlled burns to clear underbrush? You must really hate the environment! Why would you want to burn our precious underbrush?!?!? :(((

moosey 8y ago

Normally a country that is the size of CA, and having the same economy, would have a broader tax base because it wouldn't be losing money to another government, in this case, the federal government of the United States. Of course, there is Prop 13, which greatly harmed the state's ability to collect taxes. Finally, I'd argue that efficiency is impossible as long as the government continues to use the same just-in-time models that the private sector uses. The main problem being that there is no guarantee of work or quality when a contractor is hired by a government. We either need those guarantees or we need to switch back to in-house work.

RhysU 8y ago
Normally a country that is the size of CA, and having the same economy, would have to pay for its own military, etc. The Federal government does provide irreplaceable services.

r00fus 8y ago

The problem is Prop13. Corporations (and the wealthy who shelter their wealth in them) use the ol' board of directors shuffle to bypass tax reevaluations. Getting Corps out of Prop13 would massive increase state revenues by taxing the rich. Trickle-down theory is a sham that tries to justify not taxing the rich. It has been proven time and time again to be unsupported by the data.