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What is it about the law of unintended consequences can our politicians not understand? They just cannot grasp this concept. Politicians will not think ten minutes into the future to see what harm will be caused by their actions and their ridiculous laws.
Our genius politicians are about to push legislation to charge drivers by the mile in some states. What is the end result of this? Drivers will drive less, which means less tax revenue to the government due to less fuel taxes. More money due to the mileage charge, less due to the lost fuel tax revenue, and you end up with a net reduction of revenue at the end of the day. This is not a new concept. This has happened repeatedly in our past. As they say, those that cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it. Well, why do they keep doing the same things over and over, expecting a different result? I thought that was the definition of insanity. For the past several years, due to droughts and mismanagement of our water resources, we have many parts of America having water shortages. The politicians and water authorities threatened fines and punishment for the overuse of water. What was the end result? That's right. People used less water; therefore, the water and sewer charge revenues to the water companies and the taxes charged went DOWN. What did they do? That's right. They had to increase the per gallon charges for water. In many states in America, the genius politicians thought it would be a good idea to add a $1.00 per pack tax increase on cigarettes while the federal government, at the same time, is going to levy a $.62 per pack federal tax increase on cigarettes. Our politicians pushed these taxes under the guise that it would benefit their SCHIP program to help children get insurance and that fewer people would smoke; therefore, health problems from smoking would cost the government less money. Not only does this double punitive taxation on cigarettes unfairly hurt the lower income and middle classes, its whole premise is wrong. This is the most regressive tax ever invented in regards to punishing the poor and the middle class. The two promises cannot stand up in a vacuum. There cannot be an increase in revenue and a reduction of smokers at the same time. As usual, the law of unintended consequences comes into play. Let's give the politicians the benefit of the doubt here and let's say this plan works as in their fantasies. Several things could happen. Scenario 1: These lower and middle income people will continue to smoke their normal amounts, suffering the financial burden, while moving money from other portions of their budgets to compensate for this massively regressive tax. Hopefully, they will not have to take the money out of their food budget. In this scenario, everything is fine and dandy. The government rips off the poor and the politicians have more money to spend wastefully on things other than originally intended. Scenario 2: As with every time in history, people will give you less of a behavior they are being punished for. Smokers will stop smoking altogether or reduce their consumption. Fewer children will start smoking. Supposedly, health costs to the government will go down. Sounds great, doesn't it? NOPE! This situation will reduce taxes to the politicians and will cause numerous other unintended consequences for our future, because politicians are going to get their money from somewhere. Cigarette companies will lose revenues, which will in turn, reduce further the amount going to the politicians. Reduced revenues at the cigarette companies means employees start getting laid off in massive amounts. Growers start filing bankruptcy. Fertilizer manufacturers suffer and start laying people off. Farm equipment manufacturers suffer and start laying people off. Farm equipment sales dealers close down. Wholesalers start laying people off. Truck drivers, who deliver the cigarettes, start getting laid off. The mechanics, who work on the tractor-trailers and farm equipment, start getting laid off. Companies that make the filters start closing or laying people off. Companies that make the paper for the cigarettes and packaging start laying people off. Convenience stores, who sell massive amounts of cigarettes, start laying people off. Liquor stores start to suffer. I could go on and on, but I feel you understand how massive the unintended consequences actually reach. Scenario 3: This scenario will happen to some extent no matter what happens. The citizens, who are completely overwhelmed with this backdoor attempt at prohibition, start searching for illegal ways to get cigarettes to avoid the severe taxation. This scenario gives rise to the black market, where people start smuggling cigarettes into the country and have young children selling them on street corners. Imagine our jails filling up with people who sold cigarettes illegally. This scenario did not play out well with alcohol prohibition and does not work on our so-called war on drugs in this country. Needless to say, this would be a great disaster. This concept has been proven hundreds of times throughout history. You REDUCE taxes and revenue to the government goes UP. You INCREASE taxes and revenue to the government goes DOWN. It is the opposite of what the average person would believe due to the fact that you have to take into consideration the human factor. If all factors stayed the same with spending, sales volume, and costs, increased taxes would cause income to the government to go up. Here lies the problem. By nature, humans will always give you less of what they are punished for and more of what you reward them for. As they say, you can shave a sheep hundreds of times, but you can only skin it once. The sheep, of course, is the taxpayer. Politicians cannot, for some reason, grasp this concept. If they keep raising taxes on everything we do, from driving, using water, smoking cigarettes, and a thousand other things, they will only keep losing revenue and then have to start searching for somewhere else to overtax us. You have to remember, as they search for more avenues to tax us to death, businesses and entities do not pay taxes, they only pass the burden onto us, the taxpayer. The problem is, we taxpayers are always the ones who will have to foot the bill while these politicians are running rampant with blank checks. Punitive taxation (especially without representation) should be illegal and the lawmakers, who put such taxation in place, should have to stand trial to answer as to why they do this to the American citizens. All I can say is this; our politicians are going to keep taxing average Americans to death until the citizens actually start resorting to violence. This may be the only way to get through to the spend-thrifts in Congress. Tea Party, anyone? from www.bearbrooks.com
03-24-2009 Party now has a new anthem by Lloyd Marcus (his website) from the Stop Obama Tour...Listen here CLICK... For the TeaParty on TaxDay, April, 15th, CLICK For the TeaParty on July 4th, CLICK 02-08-2009
Here are some YouTube videos of her. 12-24-2008 to all of my wonderful readers. I will be adding more writings soon. Please tell your friends about my blog and let them know they can read my book for free on my book link. AMF. BB 1-05-2008 10-02-2008 09-29-2008 09-26-2008
09-23-2008 09-09-2008
The website is open: www.bearbrooks.com Visit for the blog, the articles, the funny pages, or if you like, the pics of hot men and women...it is like going to the beach without getting sand in your crack!
05-30-2008 05-26-2008 05-16-2008 05-13-2008 05-12-2008 05-06-2008 05-04-2008 05-01-2008 04-28-2008 04-24-2008 04-21-2008 04-17-2008 04-16-2008 04-10-2008 04-08-2008 04-07-2008 04-04-2008 04-03-2008 04-01-2008 03-27-2008 03-26-2008 03-25-2008 03-23-2008 03-20-2008 03-18-2008 03-17-2008 And by the way: Sorry, Barack. You are a lying ass if you expect us to believe that you did not know what your own preacher was about the whole time you were going to church there. You can sell that lie somewhere else because I ain't buyin it!!! You sleep with pigs and you'll get dirty. Instead of teaching the black congregation to better themselves by being better than white, bigoted, racists, he teaches them to always blame "whitey" for everything that is wrong in their lives. LIFE LESSON ONE for all black people: Associate with people that are BETTER than you and you will succeed...if you hang out with losers, you will become one. This goes for whites, Latinos, and everyone else. If you associate with people who are better than you, you will become better by default. We all know an intelligent person, who hangs out with idiots, who starts to sound like the idiots they hang out with. Who do you want rubbing off on you? A stupid redneck? An ignorant gang member speaking Ebonics? A successful businessman? A leader in the community? THIS IS EVERY INDIVIDUAL'S CHOICE. You associate with who and what you want to be or you can keep blaming "whitey;" it has always worked before. 03-13-2008 I recently StumbledUpon these: Enjoy! ? The World According to Americans: This is what your children will know about World Geography when they go to government schools. CLICK ? Oh No! I cannot believe these proposed books for children never made it. CLICK ? Most Americans have no idea about how capitalism works and why it is great. Maybe using cows will make it understandable. CLICK ? OK. Here is the deal. You find out someone has been "spanking" your spouse or significant other. Do you get mad? NO... You discuss it with them using CraigsList. CLICK ? Do you understand how different political systems work? Capitalism, Socialism, etc.. These are great explanations using damn cows again. CLICK ? Take a look at this and you will really understand how your mind works. It is also the reason most students cannot write a complete paragraph to save their lives. CLICK 03-12-2008 03-11-2008 03-10-2008 03-09-2008 03-06-2008 03-05-2008 03-02-2008 02-29-2008 -I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon. -Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive. -Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views. -Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other people's money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people's freedom and security. -I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said. -I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral slob. 02-27-2008 02-26-2008 02-24-2008 02-22-2008 02-20-2008 02-19-2008 2-17-2008 This is what pisses me off about our Congress. There are such successes with regards to cooperation between other countries in the fight against terror, and all they do is poo poo the threat and call GWB the problem. They continue to call him a war monger and the biggest problem in the world. When will they get it? Why didn't 9-11 wake them up from their old, 20th century thinking of how the world works? They fight against every tool we try to put in place to keep us safe. They pick and choose the parts of the 9-11 commission they want to use to discredit the present Administration and seem to ignore the threats that existed for over 20 years. The President, any President, can't do everything himself. He doesn't have that Superman costume hanging in the closet. Congress makes such a big deal out of the dots not being connected before 9-11, yet they don't seem to care about connecting dots, finding the bad guys and moving forward to keep our country secure today. They don't give the impression they really care when they go home and leave the terrorist surveillance program still unable to come to the floor for a vote when they HAVE the votes to pass it through. The problem is the Democrats are not letting it come up FOR that VOTE!! Not very constructive stand to take. Maybe they should congratulate our allies and our own intelligence community for once, pass a non binding resolution of solidarity with those who combat terror around the world. Wouldn't that be nice? 02-12-2008 02-09-2008 02-07-2008 02-05-2008 02-02-2008 01-25-2008 01-24-2008 01-22-2008 01-16-2008 The Bill Lawmakers Didn't Have Time to Read (and why you must!) How Poor Are America's Poor? Examining the "Plague" of Poverty in America Wanted: A "Suck It Up" Candidate By Michelle Malkin 01-13-2008 01-09-2008 01-08-2008 01-04-2008 12-31-2007 H A P P Y N E W Y E A R 12-23-2007 12-17-2007 12-15-2007 12-12-2007 12-06-2007 11-27-2007 11-22-2007 HAPPY THANKSGIVING 11-21-2007 11-18-2007 11-07-2007 11-04-2007 11-02-2007 10-29-2007 10-24-2007 10-21-2007 10-16-2007 10-12-2007 10-10-2007 10-02-2007 09-30-2007 09-26-2007 09-25-2007 09-19-2007 09-18-2007 09-14-2007 09-13-2007 09-06-2007 "A Different World" We were born to mothers who smoked and drank Our cribs were covered in lead based paint No child proof lids no seat belts in cars Rode bikes with no helmets and still here we are, still here we are We got daddy?s belt when we misbehaved Had three TV channels you got up to change No video games and no satellite All we had were friends and they were outside, playin? outside Chorus It was a different life When we were boys and girls Not just a different time It was a different world School always started the same every day The pledge of allegiance then someone would pray Not every kid made the team when they tried We got disappointed and that was all right, we turned out all right Chorus Bridge No bottled water, we drank from a garden hose And every Sunday, all the stores were closed Now, think about all of the parents you know, with their fat, video game addicted children, and how they treat them. 09-04-2007 09-02-2007 09-01-2007 Genius #1, Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder and President of PETA (people for edible & tasty animals), stated that cow farts are the #1 cause of global warming. Genius #2, Mike Gravel, former Senator, (D) Alaska, stated "we will be cooked out of the planet in 100 years." Let me add this up, we have gained 1 degree in the past 100 years, but in the next 100 we will be "cooked out." I don't get it. Dennis Miller said it best, "they were still shitting in the woods 100 years ago, I am not sure they had a full grasp on the Fahrenheit scale." Think about it, go to a store and find any two thermometers that are the same. Global warming nuts want us to believe that there is full accuracy in the bullshit they are preaching. It is just like tornadoes, hurricanes, rain, tsunamis, and every other damn thing that happens on this planet, the so-called experts eventually just take a w.a.g. (wild ass guess) at it. Sometimes they get lucky and get it right. Do not get me wrong on this. I love Bill Maher's show and Tivo every one. I do not agree with all of his politics, but his show is funny as hell. I like seeing all sides of the issues. The only problem I have is that some of his guests are just "fucktards." 08-28-2007 08-27-2007 08-21-2007 08-18-2007 08-16-2007 08-13-2007 08-08-2007 08-01-2007 07-23-2007 |
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