Oregon Voters and Taxes

Oregon voters just voted by 54 to 46 percent to raise taxes. They did not raise taxes on themselves. They raised taxes on those making over $125,000 and businesses. The 54% who voted to raise taxes voted to raise taxes on someone else. The 54% voted to raise taxes on 3% of the voters, and on businesses.

The voters think by voting to raise taxes on businesses they will be taking from the rich business men. They are too naive to realize they are raising the cost of goods and services to all consumers. As the voter's greed and envy causes the cost of business to rise, some businesses will leave the state. Less competitors may mean higher prices to the consumer,

This is further proof of Bastiat's theory, "The Law" is legal plunder. The law, as Bastiat said, becomes perverted when it does something other than protect property and lives. Today the law is used for legal plunder, just as Bastiat predicted.

A recent US Supreme Court ruling allows corporations to spend money on campaign ads. Liberals are alarmed at this. The court decision also allows unions to spend money on campaign ads. The Oregon vote shows the power of unions, the government mob, to influence campaigns. The Oregon public employees unions outspent the opponents of the ballot $6.85 million to $4.55 million.

In the San Mateo-Foster City School District there is a ballot measure to raise parcel taxes for the schools by a whopping 113%! The tax will increase from $84.85 to $180.85 per year.

The immorality of this ballot is it excludes people over age 65 from paying the tax. If they do not have to pay the tax it is immoral that they can vote in favor of forcing others to pay the tax. Those who are over 65 should not be allowed to vote on this measure if they are not required to pay the tax. There are people over 65 who may be retired teachers or have someone in their family who works in the San Mateo-Foster City School District. Their yes vote is a way to legal plunder. I voted no on the proposal.

My AT&T phone bill includes "Government Fees and Taxes". These fees for 2010 increased a whopping 15%.

My Medicare premiums for 2010 increased 15%!

San Francisco area bridge tolls will rise 20%!

California sales taxes increased in 2009 from 7.25% to 8.25%, a 13.7% increase. Did CA provide more services from the increase?

The San Mateo County Public Transportation, SamTrans, raised its fares in Feb 2009. A year later they raised them again an average of 10%!

San Mateo, CA raised its use tax from 1% to 1.25%. This is a sales tax cities and counties can add on to the CA state sales tax. The government employees promoting the 25% increase in the San Mateo City use tax said it was only a quarter of a cent added on to the already 9.25% total sales tax the San Mateo citizens paid bringing the total sales tax for San Mateo to 9.50%. That is correct, but the increase in the city sales tax is a whopping 25%! This obfuscation is successful with most of the voters.

During the past 12 months the San Francisco MUNI has raised fares as much as 30%!

Federal Funding for the Head Start program increased from $7.2 billion to $8 billion, a 13% increase, which includes a cost of living increase when the cost of living has not increased.

HHS released the Head Start Impact Study Final Report.
There are several remarkable things about it : The study demonstrated that children’s attendance in Head Start has no demonstrable impact on their academic, socio-emotional, or health status at the end of first grade. That’s right. If you were a mother who lost the lottery, couldn't get your child into Head Start, and had to care for her at home, she was no worse off at the end of first grade than she would have been had she gotten into Head Start.

The tax increases are adding up, yet there is no inflation. The government said there was no inflation and did not give a cost of living increase to Social Security recipients in 2010. The consumer price index was actually down in 2009. If there is no inflation, why all the tax increases? Why can private business get by without raising prices and government services cannot get by without raising prices? Could it be that government services have no competition? Government is a monopoly that operates on force. It collects its revenue at the point of a gun.

"When plunder has become a way of life for a group of people living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it, and a moral code that glorifies it." ~ Frédéric Bastiat

No matter how much taxes the government takes from the producers, it will not be enough. If the government taxed at 100% they still would spend more than they take in. Then there would be the long ululations of how some people, white males, are not producing enough and should work harder. The central planners and plunders never rest.

Charles Tolleson, over 65, white male