#1 2010-04-28 15:29:45
Nikola Tesla brought street lights to Colorado Springs in 1900.
Now that convenience is reserved for the affluent.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/201 … et-lights/
Last edited by Taint (2010-04-29 00:25:59)
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#2 2010-04-28 15:49:57
choad wrote:
Now that convenience is reserved for the affluent.
As well it should be. Why should Broadmoor or any other wealthy tax paying neighborhood subsidize streetlights in other areas. Areas where 47 percent do not even pay taxes at all and most of the rest don't even pay enough to cover their fair share of the lighting bill.
Plus they do not need as many streetlight. anybody in those areas who is out past dark is not resting up to get to work the next day and improve their circumstances. Rather more likely they are up to no good.
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#3 2010-04-28 15:51:09
Ah... Class Warfare.
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#4 2010-04-28 15:58:24
Johnny_Rotten wrote:
Areas where 47 percent do not even pay taxes at all
You do realize that this number the Repubs love to throw around truly indicates how fucked our society has become. At this point almost half of our population doesn't make enough money to have to pay taxes - the middle class has all but disappeared.
That number should alarm you not because those people don't pay taxes but because they can't make enough money to pay taxes.
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#5 2010-04-28 17:02:56
Emmeran wrote:
Johnny_Rotten wrote:
Areas where 47 percent do not even pay taxes at all
You do realize that this number the Repubs love to throw around truly indicates how fucked our society has become. At this point almost half of our population doesn't make enough money to have to pay taxes - the middle class has all but disappeared.
That number should alarm you not because those people don't pay taxes but because they can't make enough money to pay taxes.
I don't know about that Em. I believe the line drawn between those who pay taxes and those who do not is an arbitrary one selected more for political reasons than for economics. I believe everyone earning money should pay some amount in income taxes, even if it is only 1%. This would give them "skin in the game" as Obama says. Otherwise they have no reason to care about the country's financial condition. They only have to worry about the choice between the politicians as to which will give them the most free money. Seriously, I think it would be better for everyone if all paid something.
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#6 2010-04-28 17:11:39
phreddy wrote:
Emmeran wrote:
Johnny_Rotten wrote:
Areas where 47 percent do not even pay taxes at all
You do realize that this number the Repubs love to throw around truly indicates how fucked our society has become. At this point almost half of our population doesn't make enough money to have to pay taxes - the middle class has all but disappeared.
That number should alarm you not because those people don't pay taxes but because they can't make enough money to pay taxes.I don't know about that Em. I believe the line drawn between those who pay taxes and those who do not is an arbitrary one selected more for political reasons than for economics. I believe everyone earning money should pay some amount in income taxes, even if it is only 1%. This would give them "skin in the game" as Obama says. Otherwise they have no reason to care about the country's financial condition. They only have to worry about the choice between the politicians as to which will give them the most free money. Seriously, I think it would be better for everyone if all paid something.
I agree with you, but what I'm referring to is the shrinking middle class; and remember these tax laws have slowly developed through Republican dominated, balanced and Democrat dominated governments. The earning power of the average American has slowly slipped away and that concerns me.
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#7 2010-04-28 17:13:28
Usually it's the opposite. Cities usually pay extra to ensure that the kleig lights are burning all night in the ghetto.
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#8 2010-04-28 19:34:18
Many of those who "don't pay taxes" aren't paying income taxes but do pay FICA as do their employers paying the FICA matching. Given that Social Security has been running a surplus for some years, it may be the case that these people are paying their fair share. The surplus has simply been reducing the deficit on paper ans stacking up as T-bills that push the problem off to the future. Makes me glad I'm old.
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#9 2010-04-28 19:36:46
I have to agree with Em that the shrinking of the Middle Class should have everybody shitting their pants. They provide a buffer between the Rich and the dangerous Riffraff, and a large healthy Middle Class makes for a stable society. When the Middle Class is absent, the Poor have no hope of bettering themselves and more of their young become Thugs. The Rich wall themselves off; any services they need that in an affluent society would be provided by government (water, sewer, schools, street lights) are contracted for privately and the rest of society does without. A small class of Haves, with everybody else being a Have-Not is typical of Turd World societies and not something I want to see become the norm in America.
Last edited by fnord (2010-04-28 19:41:37)
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#10 2010-04-28 19:49:39
I have only to point to the Wiemar Republic as example of what can actually occur when the balance shifts too far; or maybe just to the Tea Party (I'll resist calling them brown shirts for now).
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#11 2010-04-28 19:57:05
So where did that middle bit go? I suggest the last 60 years of middle class stability was brought to you by the IWW and other Unions. Now that the Republicans and Centrist Democrats have effectively removed the Unions, and then the jobs to overseas... well what did you all expect to follow after the last 30 years of assault? There was a time in the US when a job could actually put food on the table, and people didn't have to live 5 to a one bedroom apartment like the kids do here in Portland.
Really,it is trained sheeple out there.
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