This morning on CBS Sunday Morning Linda McGibney took Ben Stein to task for his whining greed:
….I have always understood that the “haves” were greedy. This is the first time I’ve heard one of them express it out loud so openly.
I am a “have.” I am willing to pay this tax increase. I’m not going to whine about it. I won’t feel punished. I will understand it’s the cost of doing business.
It is worth sacrificing because our country needs some of us to sacrifice . . . the some of us who can.
And, Mr. Stein, we are not suffering.
But then again, that’s what we have come to expect from Nixon speech writers.
* Title taken from spoken dialogue in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986).
…we’d storm their palaces:
Via Balloon Juice – It’s Not What We Don’t Know…:
In his blog post regarding another rich-man’s pity-party, Chicago Tribune blogger/columnist Eric Zorn coined the Rules of Self-Pity:
— MrJM
http://blogs.chicagotribune.co…
I would like to lower my taxes but how much would it cost me? That is right what would it cost me? My local library system cost me $39.15 a year. If instead of the public library there was a subscription library, what would it cost me to join? I use the library several times a week. Check out books and movies. Spend time reading the newspaper and using their computer. I could I suppose get my own newspaper and magazine subscriptions – no doubt it would be much more than $39.15 a year.
I pay $743.21 to the local school system, think of the money I could save if we did away with public schools. My grand children live in another state why should I care about schools? Why not do away with public schools all together think of the taxes we would save. Schools are the number one exspense for local government. If I where a business owner I could see where I would want tot have a good local school to train my future employees but I am not so who cares abut schools?
While we are at it why do I need to pay $44.68 to have an Ambulance Service, $80.60 for a Fire Department, $35.89 for road and bridge maintenance? Instead of a professional Ambulance Service we could have a volunteer service and have bake sales on weekends to pay for the ambulance, supplies and fuel. I have a tractor so I could mow the roads in the summer and blade the road should it need it in the winter. Why pay taxes to have someone else do these things when we could get these things done by volunteers or do without.
My point is it always seems like lower taxes would be nice but you get what you pay for.