March 24, 2008
Stopping the Tides
When it so happens that the powers that be seem intent on acting in opposition to crystal clear reality, citizens are compelled to act. In Rhode Island, there's hope — or, in any case, we've hope — that plain information will serve to stop the tides, because it is in the universal self-interest to do so.
You've heard the argument: Our state's regime of taxation, regulation, and spending is driving away the range of citizens who are most likely to be productive, both as workers and as entrepreneurs, while attracting those most apt to partake of our too-generous services. As the taxation policies installed to compensate for the lack of further windfalls inspire the outward flow to continue, the government's shortfall with each budget will expand, rather than contract. How far down the path of economic stagnation do we want to go?
Under the principle that the impossibility of taking strides does not grant us permission to stand still, we've put together a flyer of sorts that seeks to convey one component of the vast body of evidence. We encourage you to print out copies to do with as you deem productive. Put them on public bulletin boards. Hand them out. Send them to media types and legislators. And if the effort meets any success, we'll proceed down the list of points until we've persuaded enough people to make it possible for Rhode Island to avoid utter (and utterly unnecessary) calamity.
Moving out of Rhode Island has made a huge difference in my life. I recommend it to everyone. Out here in Idaho, the state has to balance its budget every year by law, and they abide by it. I admire the pundits at Anchor Rising and the other intellectuals who want to change the RI government. However, I don't see how it is possible to get better voters in RI. How do 100,000 intellectuals and reformers overrule the other 900,000 idiots? I think the state workers, union members, RI Dems, and the other negative forces are way too entrenched. Maybe the state will collapse economically in a way similar to the old Soviet Union. But then what? What a mess!
Posted by: Citizen Critic at March 24, 2008 2:21 PMSadly, the above poster is dead on. If you add up the moochers, the looters, their "progressive" dim-witted sympathizers and their families you have the majority of the voters statewide. Not in the suburbs to be sure but statewide. These lucky sperm progressives who could care less about taxes have tipped what was once a precarious balance firmly in the direction of fiscal insanity. A 10% sales tax is coming by 2011. Count on it.
Posted by: Mike at March 24, 2008 7:29 PMI forgot to mention the illegal aliens and the welfare queens. Also, we need to credit the poverty pimps.
No one in any political party in RI has ever addressed the 400 pound gorilla in the room: the massive welfare fraud that exists in RI. Perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars is siphoned off every year. One popular destination: Puerto Rico. Here's how one of the many scams works: Fly in to PVD, get a PO box. Sign up for your bennies! Fly back to PR. Get your sister to send you your cut every month by Western Union.
Of course the 800 pound gorilla is the public sector union influence.
By my calculation, Don Carcieri should have fired 5,000 state workers. Only then might the state stand a fighting chance.
Yes, get ready for absolutely massive tax hikes. If you are a taxpayer, the RI government owns your ass.
Simply put, Rhode Island's business model just cannot work. It will only lead to oppression. Get out, or suffer.
Posted by: Citizen Critic at March 25, 2008 1:44 AM