dagblog - Comments for "The Ugly Truth About Infrastructure (and Taxes)"

Premium a reward or prize;

Resistance — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:34:44 +0000

In reply to You're being silly!In Nevada,

Premium a reward or prize; very high value: rated as superior in quality

Excerpt taken from the link Donal provided

Yes, if you say “tax” in the United States, people go mad. I had one person explain to me that we shouldn’t use tax revenues to build infrastructure – we should use bond issues. Which is exactly the same, of course, as saying you shouldn’t use money to buy clothes – you should use a credit card.

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

No amount of tax-cutting builds a wastewater treatment plant, as the people of Colorado City famously discovered; no magical free market is going to pave your roads for you….

Premium sounds less offensive.

You want the “premium” gasoline you…… want the “premium” mattress,

Even floating the idea of raising taxes is taboo.

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. .

How are these fees different

EmmaZahn — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:39:47 +0000

In reply to You're being silly!In Nevada,

How are these fees different from excise taxes?

You're being silly!In Nevada,

Beetlejuice — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:24:16 +0000

In reply to Don't call it taxes anymore,

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.

The GOPer's have had the

Beetlejuice — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:10:56 +0000

In reply to The Ugly Truth About Infrastructure (and Taxes)

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.

Pretty much the same attitude

cmaukonen — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:44:52 +0000

In reply to The Ugly Truth About Infrastructure (and Taxes)

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.

It doesn't hurt to go the

EmmaZahn — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:38:23 +0000

In reply to Don't call it taxes anymore,

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.

Don't call it taxes anymore,

Resistance — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:27:33 +0000

In reply to The Ugly Truth About Infrastructure (and Taxes)

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.

Americans' attitude toward

acanuck — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:10:39 +0000

In reply to The Ugly Truth About Infrastructure (and Taxes)

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.

Thanks for the link. I

EmmaZahn — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:16:17 +0000

In reply to The Ugly Truth About Infrastructure (and Taxes)

Thanks for the link. I left the comment there:

I look forward to reading your book, Mr. Huler. Sounds like you got to do something I always wanted to. So far I have only been able to follow one infrastructure system to any significant degree and, judging by the following quotes, it seems to be one that you have yet to explore: the money market.

"Yes, if you say “tax” in the United States, people go mad. I had one person explain to me that we shouldn’t use tax revenues to build infrastructure – we should use bond issues. Which is exactly the same, of course, as saying you shouldn’t use money to buy clothes – you should use a credit card."

"But regarding where the money should come from to pay for it all? There’s only one source, and we obviously need more of it."

"But if it’s not with tax money, then I want to know: How do we pay for all this? We need the money; we can’t do without the systems. If not from taxes, where does it come from?"

Yes, the money market is infrastructure. If you take as much time to study it as you have water systems with which it shares many characteristics and terms, you may find the answer you seek. A good place to start: http://www.philadelphiafed.org/publications/economic-education/ben-frank...

Best,

Emma Zahn