If you're so anxious to part with your money, why not just give a little to me? I'd do more meaningful things with it than the State of California will.
It didn't get as deep at school as I thought it would today, but one particular email comment struck me as pretty gross. Yay, Californians voted to raise the state sales tax and to tax rich people more--and the extra money might go to schools and we might not have as many furlough days as was planned. One triumphant emailer claimed, "This is such good news for the students!"
Seriously? I'll just toss this comment out there in general: Does anyone really think this teacher is happy for the students? I don't.
most probably voted on what they HEARD; heaven forbid they read the information in the voter info guide.....
ReplyDeleteThen again, how many voted for incumbants at every level....those who are largely responisble for our current mess.....
both sides were wrong. the 'there's no guarantee the money goes to the schools' ignored prop 98, which guarantees at least 40%, and brown's intent . . .so, partial lie. other side . . . bribr people with a personal interest to vote for. and both ignored the fact that california's major problems are due to piecemeal bandaids like this, enacted by a people who didn't read the iniative, or understand it.
ReplyDeleteBy all means, don't come to terms with the fact that you lost. Everybody who isn't you is stupid. You, alone, are smart.
ReplyDeleteBe petty about any expression of happiness from those who won. Clearly, they're all disingenuous idiots deserving of your derision.
This path can only lead you to triumph in the next election.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. They vote FOR prop 30, which raises the taxes on the rich, but AGAINST prop 38 which would raise their own taxes. So, let's raise taxes on the rich, but not MY taxes. Selfish, rotten, and greedy. This is not good for anyone. That sound you hear is the sound of California's rich leaving the state. Oh, and the other sound you hear is the sound of California's businesses closing and leaving, too.
ReplyDeleteSo anonymous, whom are you addressing? If me, your suggestion, then, is that I'm stupid? Isn't that just as bad as what you accuse me of?
ReplyDeleteI notice you don't address any of my points. Typical.
anonymous . . . ca voters, as a group, are at best ill informed. i don't think it's necessarily their fault, because i guarantee the percentage of people who read and understood every one of california's propositions actual text is near zero . . including me. but, the best argument(s) that they don't make good choices are that the state has the nation's highest tax burden, a huge deficit, and still can't fix its infrastructure (roads, notably), needs to fund one of it's primary functions, education, through ballot initiatives, can't t elect representatives to do their primary function: pass a budget. and before you go off on a partisan tangent . . .we reelect incumbents of both parties ata rate higher than 90%, then wonder why they don't do their jobs. again. prop 30 is a classic case of californians voting for a tax, at least primarily, on someone other than them. 30 and 38 both supported education, but 30 passed because it was funded by a minority, voted on by a majority. and, kick started by a threat to take money away from a large group of people if they didn't pass it. 38, on the other hand . . . well that affects me. so, it doesn't pass. i know . . .let s put a tax on cigarettes to fund education. or gefilte fish. or jet skis. i guarantee each one of those would pass.
ReplyDeleteI am not the other anonymous, but he has a point. Darren, you need to acknowledge that people who vote differently than you are NOT necessarily stupid. I would hope you realize how important it is in a democracy to challenge even your own opinion (yes, I said it) once in awhile.
ReplyDeleteObviously, greed is one reason.
ReplyDeleteSome folks celebrating a rise in taxes are expecting a windfall as a result.
But the much more common reason is tribal.
So someone like anonymous can crow over a victory while studiedly avoiding the fact that it'll negatively impact most of the nation and perhaps anonymous as well. Being on the winning side means a lot to people even if sometimes the other side is where their objective interests actually lie.
Anonymous--they're not *necessarily* stupid, but they are *wrong*. They're entitled to that, yes, but I can still lament it and the results it brings.
ReplyDeleteother examples? in 1987, voters gave the lowest vote total to the one auto insurance initiative that would have lowered industry costs, while voting in favor of one that increased rates and created a bureaucracy to oversee those increases. we voted to fund stem cell research and high speed rail, when we weren't funding k-12schooling and allowing higher education pricesto increase exponentially. a few years back, smud lost an initiative to expand it's influence in to yolo county, despite the fact that when it expanded in to folsom rates went down, and despite the fact that the best off cities rate wise, during the enron debacle were la, modesto, and sac . . .all public utilities. we regularly pass cigarette taxes, because the less than 20% of californians who actually still smoke can't defeat them, but then use the funds ONLY to help promote not smoking . . . despite the fact that we already do that in school and have one of the lowest smoking rates in the nation. la voted to require porn actors to wear condoms, despite current requiremnts for aids testing and only one documented case of aids being transmitted ever . . . thus ensuring that the huge proportion of the world's multi trillion dollar porn business will move somewhere else. At a time when we can't balance a budget, this year we pass an initiative that would reduce expenditures on prisons while giving murderers exactly the same sentence we currently give them, then 80% vote to give pimps longer sentences than many murderers and rapists, with no judicial discretion.
ReplyDeleteso, go
ack. my comment cropped itself. it should end, 'so go on voting for incumbents and shiny things, and enjoy the results.'
ReplyDelete