Here is the last picture in the Cute Cats for Pumpman Week series. My thanks to all the people who have sent me the pictures, especially Barbara and my sister. Next week will see a return to bad taste stuff.
Click for larget picture.
I wrote the following essay last year when I had about 3 readers a day. It was my third week of blogging. I have since had a slight change of heart regarding the cigarette tax. I do not mind the tax itself since it is essentially a voluntary tax. If you don't want to pay it, quit smoking. But Kim du Toit pointed out a few months after I had written this (No, I do not know the particular post), that when a tax reaches a certain level, people will look for ways to avoid it. A prime example would be the disparity between cigarette taxes in Georgia and South Carolina. Let's just say that the difference is 50 cents a pack. (Hey Rob! Just drive across the Big Bridge and buy your cigarettes in South Carolina!) An enterprising person could buy 100 cartons of cigarettes in South Carolina where they will be $5 a carton cheaper, and sell them for $2.50 a carton more than he paid for them. He makes $2.50 a carton (which for 100 cartons nets him $250) and the Georgians he sells 'em to pay $2.50 less per carton than they would have to pay in Georgia. Everybody's happy (including the South Carolina tax man) except the Georgia taxman. Of course this is illegal, but the incentive for an easy profit might be worth the risk to some people, especially if you start talking about a truckload of cigarettes.
Other than the cigarette tax, I pretty much feel the same way about the rest of this post.
I was gonna write about SHTS and SPTS which are systems my company uses to track labor, problems and change management, but, I dropped over to Dr Weevil's site and in his April 24 post I noticed a thread on lotteries. By the way, the stuff on seiges is interesting also. Worth a read. For more interesting stuff about seiges go over to USS Clueless Anyway, I'm in favor of lotteries and lots of other businesses the government should start up or at least legalize.
As a cross between a rational anarchist and a libertarian I'm of the firm belief that people should be able to do just about anything they want to themselves as long as they don't bother other people. For example, if someone wants to pull a Lawn Chair Larry, let 'em. Now when they get in the flight path of LAX, they're a menace. They could have shot Larry down and it wouldn't have bothered me one bit. If someone wants to take himself out of the gene pool, that's fine with me. I am not my brother's keeper.
Last century we tried an experiment called Prohibition that was a colossal failure. People wanted their booze and in the entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism an organization rose up to fullfill that need. That organization was organized crime. It was very profitable. When the people finally realized, that it was impossible to legislate morality and ban the evil demon rum, Prohibition was repealed. Of course, there are still a lot of pissed off Baptists, which means that we have some funny liquor laws at the state and local level. For example, in Georgia, we still have a few dry counties, or beer and wine only counties. You can always tell them as there are liquor stores right across the county line.
As I say, we cannot legislate morality, or intelligence for that matter. That brings me to lotteries. In big cities there was once, and still may be, something called the numbers. The numbers was a lottery run by organized crime. I guess one day someone in government woke up and had this thought: Since we're already stealing money from the rich, in high taxes, and we're also running a ponzi scheme called Social Security, let's tax the stupid with a lottery and put organized crime's numbers racket out of businesss. What an idea! Yeah, that's the ticket! We'll kill two birds with one stone. Tax the stupid!
Since the Great Society, we have created a permanent underclass of people dependent on the government. We have essentially subsidized poverty. We're now even trying to remove the stigma of being on the dole by giving the poor an ATM style card rather than food stamps. I want to know where it says in the Constitution that I'm supposed to work my butt off to support someone and we don't want his (or her) self esteem to suffer. Uh Oh! I'm starting to get pissed off now. Look, if you can't afford kids, don't have them. Oh yeah. That's one of the reasons they're poor. They be stupid. Anyway since I'm up here pulling the wagon, I'd like a little help. I love the lottery! Here in Georgia, we use the proceeds from the lottery for education. A lot of the lottery tickets are bought by people with the intelligence of a brick. So it's a regressive tax. Who cares? It's not like I'm putting a gun to their heads when they pull up to the Quick Trip and get a sixpack, some cigarettes, and a few lottery tickets. Thanks for helping! Tax the stupid!
And cigarettes. Here's another great chance to tax the stupid. It's been obvious since the late 60's that cigarettes are hazardous to one's health. Hey! It says so right on the pack. That hasn't stopped people from smoking. Hell, anyone can quit smoking, but it takes a man to stand up to cancer. Smokers are stupid. But, as long as you don't smoke around me, smoke all you want. Just pay a couple bucks a pack in taxes. Tax the stupid!
As long as I'm talking about Bubba and Bubbette stocking up on beer, smokes and lottery tickets at the Quick Trip, that brings up the results of a study done by the Department of Transportation. They put black boxes in cars to record the last words of people in car accidents. In 49 states, the last words were "Oh shit!". In Arkansas, the last words were,"Hey Bubba, hold my beer and watch this."
Now that brings me to the War on Drugs. It's been about as successful as Prohibition and has made a lot of people rich. Any time our government declares a war on something other than a nation, it has been a spectacular failure. Remember the War on Poverty that we're still fighting today? It's been about as successful as our War on Drugs. I say, let the government get into the drug business. Legalize, and tax just like booze and cigarettes. At the least, legalize marijuana. It is no worse than alcohol. But what about people driving under the influence? News flash! It's against the law and people are still doing it. But I'll tell you something about pot smokers. When they do drive, they drive slower and because of the induced paranoia they're one hell of a lot more cautious then drunk drivers. They just cannot remember where they're going. Our jails are filled to overflowing. A lot of that is due to drug users. Users not pushers. Treat drug addiction as a medical problem, not a crime. If the government got into the drug business, they could undercut organized crime and still turn a profit. Use the profits and taxes and fund treatment centers. Sure, there are some people who are beyond treatment. Put them in separate facilities. But franchise out drug sales and drug treatment centers. Tax the living shit of of drug sales. Tax the stupid!
How about gasoline? We have the cheapest gas of any western industrialized nation. We are dependent on foreign oil. We drive SUV's. They're status symbols. Many of the people I know have them because everyone else has them and since gas is still cheap, it's no big deal that they are gas guzzlers. Gas taxes are essentially voluntary because no one is holding a gun on us and telling us to buy gas guzzlers. I'm against most taxes except consumption taxes. Make gas expensive and that will solve a lot of our dependence on foreign oil. What about the poor? That's what mass transit is for. Most of the liberal bedwetters who think mass transit is a good idea drive SUV's and wouldn't be caught dead on a bus. I remember during the last spike in oil prices, some whiner in Wisconsin was crying about the fact that he couldn't afford to put gas in his SUV and feed his five children. Hey bucko! Why the heck did you have five children if you can't afford them? Just asking. Tax the stupid!
And cell phones. They ought to have a big ol' tax on cell phones. Listen slick, when I'm in a restaurant, movie theater, or the checkout line at the grocery store I don't want to have to listen to a booger eatin' moh-ron like you talking on the phone. And I certainly don't want to see you driving while on the phone. They have smoking sections at restaurants. How about cell phone sections. And make 'em pay more 'cause they're so damn annoying. Tax the stupid!
We need a line on the 1040 tax form with a question: Do you think Cynthia McKinney should be taken seriously? If the answer is 'yes', you're an idiot. Your tax has just doubled. Tax the stupid!
Finally, if you see someone in an SUV, talking on the phone, smoking a cigarette or a joint, drinking a beer, with a handful of lottery tickets, call the cops and have them pull that son of a bitch over and hit him with a stupidity tax right then and there.
Tax the stupid!
Posted by denny at July 19, 2003 03:42 PM