Random Dumb Thoughts For the New Year

I'm reading the papers and seeing the list of dumb things that start today as a result of dumb government decisions. I'm very down on government and taxes lately, as I've started to investigate all of the supposed bennies the Monkey's arrival will finally enable me to take, and discovering I don't or barely qualify for any of them. I'll still be paying everyone else's tax burden, and am at risk for not even qualifying for the additional exemption/tax deduction for the Monkey. Forget about any kind of child credit, childcare credit, child health programs, first-time homebuyer's credit or the like. Apparently I'm "rich", given standards that haven't altered in years and apply to people in small-town Iowa as well as large urban centers on the coasts. Yes, in Des Moines, Iowa I could get a 5-bedroom, 3-bath, 3000 sf house with lower taxes for less than the value of my 1-bedroom condo here. Yes, I know we all make choices, but I'm tired of being labeled 'rich' and paying for everyone else's social programs when I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to get the Monkey his own bedroom in the next two years. And if I move to Iowa, I'm not going to make this 'exorbitant' income I'm making now. And all the political candidates would come knocking on my door every four years begging me to vote for them or calling me at all hours of the day and night. Hmm, maybe the PRA isn't so bad after all. We don't actually have free and open democratic elections here so they leave me alone. Actually, scratch that, we have Democratic elections here, the Republican is an elusive and mythical species rarely observed and confined to one of the golf courses.


This same thing is happening in the lovely Commonwealth of Virginia. Apparently, they're enacting all these taxes, including an additional sales tax on home sales, additional car registration fees, and an additional tax on car sales in the Northern Virginia taxes all to pay for roads and public transportation that we've been promised by Richmond and the local governments for years. Funny, the Richmond area has lots of new roads to nowhere that no one was levied extra to pay for, and if you look at where the tax revenue came from to pay for those roads, a disproportionate amount came from NoVa. I don't mind paying for the road improvements down in your neck of the woods, Betster, but I'm unclear as to why I have pay extra for mine on top of it. If the state can't fork over enough money to pay for the roads in the whole state, then tax the whole state to fix it, or let us opt out and pay for our own roads with our own revenue. And they're not really mine. The People's Republic of Arlington (PRA) may be a pain in the neck, but the one thing you can say for them is that they really knew how to plan and allowed high-density growth with lots of public transportation and walkable shopping and recreation (The PRA has been named America's most walkable area). When I was working in DC, I almost never needed my car -- I could walk to the metro, walk to the grocery store, library, restaurants and just about anything else I needed. It was the next counties out that overbuilt and hyper-developed in the last 15 years without building a road or allowing the metro out there. However, all these new taxes apply to the PRA as well, even though I usually only need my car to head out to those other counties. Oh yeah, and I don't qualify for any of their tax credits either.

And another government gripe -- a local county is now picking up on the idiocy of NY City (which I never understood how NYers allowed this to happen) and is banning all trans-fats in restaurants. I mean, jeez, does anyone think that french fries, fried donuts, prepared biscuit mixes, commercial corned beef hash and lots of other goodies are healthy for you? I sure don't. So I tend to watch what I eat, and if I have a damn donut I understand that maybe, just maybe, it's not going to extend my life by ten years. It's not like trans-fats are in the same class as arsenic, but they're treating it like one bite will send you into a coma. Many of the restaurants are complaining that their suppliers of food products don't have trans-fat free versions of the stuff they normally buy. That same county doesn't even apply the same standards to what can be in the water, which scares me way more than a donut.

This was the same county that tried to ban smoking in any private dwelling. I can't remember if they succeeded or not, or whether it only stuck in places with shared ventilation systems. Now, I hate smoking, I think it sucks, it triggers my asthma, and I do get annoyed with the occasional whiff of smoke through my vent in my condo, but people have the right to smoke in their own homes. I figure market forces come into play later, as a deal-killer for me when I was looking at buying a home was any place where I could smell smoke, because none of them would take my condition that I'd buy the place if they ripped out all the carpets, curtains and wallboards and replace them, because you can't get the smoke out of any of them. And I know I'm not the only one who skips smoky-smelling houses or way underbids them. Baby, that's a free-market.

There's got to be some kind of common sense middle ground between providing for the common good and the sadistic nanny state. You only every seem to get a choice between the no-tax-under-any-circumstances-libertarian-right-wing-nutjobs, or the nanny-stater-limousine-liberals who want to tell me that I need to provide for all the other people, should be happy to suck up all their costs while never getting any of the benefits I'm paying for myself, and am still too stupid to be trusted to choose what to eat, how to protect my kid, or whether my neighbor can smoke in his own house.

Truly random happening yesterday, though. I picked up my mail and there was an appeal for money from....Planned Parenthood. I have no idea how they got my name -- I've never been hit up for money from them before, but as I tossed it I remember thinking "you're WAY too late."

Happy New Year anyway.