MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Hits of the Day
The Ugly Truth About Infrastructure (and Taxes)
By Donal on Mon, 05/16/2011 - 10:37am |This is a guest post by Scott Huler, author of “On the Grid: A Plot of Land, An Average Neighborhood, and the Systems that Make Our World Work.”
It’s been a year since the publication of On the Grid, my book about tracing and understanding everyday infrastructure systems, so I have now spent a year talking to people about their wires and pipes — and I have terrible news. Not about infrastructure itself, which is amazing and growing only more so. No — it’s about whether we get to have any more of it.
Whenever I give a presentation, I always start with something in the news — which is easy, since wherever you go, infrastructure is in the news. Nearly every story is in some way an infrastructure story. Whatever city you live in, at least two local stories in your paper today have to do with streets or water or wastewater. Check it out — it’s always true.
But forget about local right now — let’s start with Japan.
The tsunami spent about an hour as a natural disaster, then a few days as an issue of emergency response. But the long term, the situation emerged as a pure crisis of infrastructure. Recall that Japan was already coping with the problems created by trying to run itself without the Fukishima plant. This was made even more complex by Japan’s use of both 50-hertz and 60-hertz electrical grids, caused because Japan never adopted either the North American (60-hertz) or European (50-hertz) electrical standards. Let’s not even bring up how the most serious problems were caused by decades of failure to create a long-term solution for radioactive waste, or the possibilities of thorium power generation. The point is, you start with an earthquake and a tsunami, and a cup of coffee later you’re talking about generating electricity with rare-earth mine tailings.
URL:
http://www.infrastructurist.com/2011/05/12/the-ugly-truth-about-infrastructure-and-taxes/
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by EmmaZahn on Mon, 05/16/2011 - 1:16pm
Americans' attitude toward taxes is simply delusional: we live in the best country in the world, we deserve the best country in the world, but we refuse to pay for it. Except for war, and even there, the govt. should cut "waste" rather than tax to pay for it.
Even existing infrastructure costs money to run. Solution: sell it off at bargain-basement prices to folks who'll make a profit off it by taxing its use. Matt Taibbi recounts how a deal was nearly finalized to sell the New Jersey Turnpike to a consortium of foreign sovereign wealth funds. Insanity.
by acanuck on Mon, 05/16/2011 - 2:10pm
Don't call it taxes anymore, since that term has a negative connotation.
In peoples minds, the term Taxing is synonymous with Burden. No one likes being burdened
Call it paying the Premium.
Insurance companies call it Premiums.
Premium: The periodic payment made on an insurance policy.
To insure the Government of the People can provide the services the people want, the government needs to collect a premium.
Social Security Insurance, Medicare Insurance.
We pay the premiums, because we want the benefits the premium buys.
by Resistance on Mon, 05/16/2011 - 2:27pm
It doesn't hurt to go the other direction either by asking about insurance premiums etc. 'how is this different than a tax?' especially if where you live where certain things like auto insurance, emission inspections, etc. are mandated.
by EmmaZahn on Mon, 05/16/2011 - 2:38pm
You're being silly!
In Nevada, you pay user taxes fees for specific public services you wish to use.
Like driving a car. Driver's license, auto tags and auto registration are taxes fees ... only those who wish to participate must pay the tax fee.
Same with hunting and fishing. Only those who participate are levied a tax fee for the privilege of hunting and/or fishing. Those taxes fees are what pays for the facilities, rangers, vehicles, boats, planes and helos necessary for the State to keep track of herds, and fisheries, ranges, lakes, streams, rivrers, ponds, and pastures.
What it boils down to, if only those participating pay the taxes fees, then the cost distributed over a smaller population is greater than the state as a whole.
It's the same thing with insurance premiums...the more people enrolled in a program means the cost of a premium is lower while fewer means the cost is more because there are fewer people to share the total cost.
by Beetlejuice on Tue, 05/17/2011 - 1:24pm
How are these fees different from excise taxes?
by EmmaZahn on Tue, 05/17/2011 - 1:39pm
Premium a reward or prize; very high value: rated as superior in quality
Excerpt taken from the link Donal provided
Premiums pay the overhead of the insurance company and provide the benefits.
Taxes pay the overhead of the government and provide benefits.
Are the terms interchangable? Both are the means for support.
STOP using the term taxes since it makes people mad. Premiums accomplish the same goal with less hostility. No one likes the idea of paying an insurance premium but we realize the need to do so.
Maybe the people will also reflect upon the idea, that the more we pay in premiums, the better the quality of the product received.
If changing the name taxes to premiums, making people less mad, then rational minds will prevail.
We need to raise premiums if we want a premium product
Premium sounds less offensive.
You want the “premium” gasoline you…… want the “premium” mattress,
Instead of raising taxes, we want people to think not taxes, but premium.
Do you want the product of good roads or roads with potholes? Premium costs a little more, but the value is better
Do you want the government to provide you with water or do you want good safe water. Then you’ll need to pay a premium if you want the premium product. .
by Resistance on Tue, 05/17/2011 - 2:34pm
Pretty much the same attitude it has always been. People in this country, especially those on the right, want someone else to do the work, foot the bill. And the higher up the economic ladder you go, the more prevision this attitude is. Something for nothing and at the same time yell there ain't no free lunch.
If these self same people yelled this in a psych ward, they would be put on some heave duty drugs.
by cmaukonen on Mon, 05/16/2011 - 3:44pm
The GOPer's have had the answer all along...just no one considered it viable.
For instance, charter schools, privately controlled toll roads, bridges, parks, urban transport and so forth.
It's all about local state and federal governments selling off those public entities as well as internal positions to private interest groups and recouping a fraction of the profits while the private enterprise assumes the leadership role and forks over the costs for maintenance and collects their fair share of the profits from tolls and fees collected from the public forced to pay for what was once free because the cost once came out of the tax revenues everyone paid.
In other words, remove the social function and replace it with a capitalist function and the users tolls and fees for usage will pay for the maintenance costs and the profit for those conducting the operation.
When one has to consider setting aside money for driving to and from work above and beyond car maintenance and gas as well as parking at malls and shopping centers as well as parks and recreation areas, they might begin so see the purpose why those before us selected a social governing system.
Unfortunately, once sold off to private industry, I suspect the Supreme Court wouldn't allow the public the opportunity to take it back.
by Beetlejuice on Tue, 05/17/2011 - 1:10pm