Grnment doesn't work when people refuse to pay for the standard of living

[jasi2006]

they WANT. California has some of the higest income folks in the US and they are complaining about taxes. Not Federal taxes...local taxes. They want services that they aren't willing to pay for. It's not necessarialy the Federal taxes that are the problem it the local taxes that pay for the standard of living they ask for.

[inthebrain]

1. Yup, it the fault of the people

My!!! How very LAZY and very RIGHT WING.

Consider the fact that these people haven't gotten a raise in decades like everyone else. The bulk of their federal taxes goes into the military budget which, if significantly slashed, those funds could be allocated to schools, roads, public works etc.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. In the case of California it IS the fault of the people

The people passed a series of wing-nut ballot propositions making it impossible for the state government to provide basic services.

That is what THE PEOPLE did.

The OP is kind of a mess... starting with the novel spelling of government, but the observation that Californians demand state and local government services they refuse to pay for is spot on.

(Assuming that's what the OP is saying... it seems to be.)

[Captain Hilts]

4. Yet they keep wanting the govt. to do MORE when they give it LESS. nt

[inthebrain]

6. Well, lets just ignore the elephant in the room

and not really address that the Fed Gov, who could EASILY FUND all this stuff, wastes all our cash on the military budget. Even after that, have plenty of money to give to the banks.

Not to mention that the people who live under it are COMPLETELY BROKE and losing their homes.

[Captain Hilts]

7. The Fed Govt.- as a % of GDP - spends far LESS on mil spending than in the 60s-90s.

Military spending is not a constant, it's been in decline.

[inthebrain]

9. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Are you freakin serious?

The Military Budget has increased, even under Obama. We spend about 10 times more than the country behind us on the military. We're by far number one in the world. The Military Budget has been spiraling out of control FOR DECADES!!!!!

[Captain Hilts]

10. As a % of GDP it is much smaller than it was in the past. Really. nt

[inthebrain]

11. Funny that you can't use actual dollars

GDP can be distorted by multiple factors and is not reliable.

[Captain Hilts]

12. This chart is meaningless and you are ignorant. Do I wish the $ was spent domestically? Yes. But

defense spending is actually lower now, significantly so.

Over and out.

[inthebrain]

13. The chart is meaningless and I'm ignorant because it proves you wrong

just as I've proven you wrong.

The military budget has not gone down at all. It's trended upwards.

[patrice]

18. "Upwards" as a % of total revenues?

[patrice]

17. Is GDP a good standard? I understand it includes a great deal that doesn't have shit to do with the

quality of people's lives.

[inthebrain]

19. It's not a good standard at all

and a lot of folks use it to mislead people.

Not that that hasn't happened here. (LOL)

[Catshrink]

14. It's the result of Reaganomics.

when the block grants, etc. were cut in the 80's the states started borrowing, etc. to make up the difference. They've cut so much that now there is no more "fat" to trim and the shortfalls can't be ignored anymore. Now the cuts are Draconian and finally, people notice.

Grover Norquist has finally gotten his wish -- government is drowning. Grover is a domestic terrorist.

[inthebrain]

5. WHO put those wing nut propositions on the ballot

and WHO proposed them.

I'm sure it was the Teachers, Road Workers, Construction Workers and the folks scratching out a living at StarBucks or Waiting Tables.

Fact is that there is plenty of money in the government to go around and regular folks surely don't have control of what's spent where. And they are certainly not responsible for the misleading language that comes FROM THE GOVERNMENT WHICH IS OWNED BY CAPITALISTS that is meant to mislead them.

[iamjoy]

8. It's Right Wing To Oppose Taxes

I think it's right wing to oppose taxes and then still expect services.

Right wingers bitch about taxes and then complain that the lines at the DMV are too long. Maybe if the government wasn't so strapped for cash they could afford to hire more people.

[Goldstein1984]

15. I agree with you that Californians have experienced the same

decay under policies of trickldown economics and militarism as the rest of the nation, but I spent the first 28 years of my life in California--born and raised there--and they do tend to demand things they aren't willing to pay for. They also like electricity, but they want the nice clean produce imported through nice clean wires from other places where the dirty old power plants should be built. California is the NIMBY King in a nation of NIMBYs.

In California, major corporations build NIMBY delays into their projects. If they really want to start building something in 2014, they pretend to want construction to start in 2012, just to get the lawsuits started and out of the way. I was once offered a job by a large corporation, and part of my duties would have been to participate in the environmental permitting part of this strategic process. Wouldn't touch that job, or that company, with a pole of any length.

But I've spent the last 26 years in Alaska, where everyone gets an annual dividend check and nobody pays an individual state income tax. But, if there is one thing that the non-taxpayers of Alaska can agree on, it's that they are overtaxed. Even in light of an economy with a huge federal spending component that brings in more federal tax dollars than Alaskans pay out.

All that said, wanting something for nothing is human nature. The people are not the big problem. Government that favors the interests of the few at the expense of the many is the problem. Misuse of tax dollars is the problem. No-bid, non-competitive, sole-source contracts given to political cronies are the problem. Five percent of the world's population being forced to do 50% of the world's "defense" spending is a problem. Power, with a huge investment in the status quo, and a congress that has become a bordello for the wealthy, is a problem. Corruption, not the desire of the people to be represented and to see their tax dollars used to promote the general welfare, is a problem.

[patrice]

20. 1+

[Captain Hilts]

3. Californians have backed themselves into a corner. Ontario is a better role model. nt

[patrice]

16. That's it in a nutshell; there are a whole HELL of a lot of people in this country, who btw complain

constantly about other people who "want something for nothing" and who, in fact, want EVERYTHING for whatever they decide to give for it, not just some meager food and an ordinary roof over their heads when they sleep, but out of season food from Timbuktu, roads absolutely everywhere, total cosmetic surgery, WAR whenever/wherever/whyever they want, a new planet, the biggest gas guzzlers possible not only for themselves but for any of their children and grandchildren, at least 2 3K+ sq ft homes, 65 degree refrigeration everywhere they go during the summer and 75 degrees everywhere they go during the winter, cheap maids, child care, cooks, and other laborers, 32 hour work weeks at the most - if they work at all . . . too many people EXPECT all of this at the price they are willing to pay, NOT at its actual cost to all of the systems that make this stuff possible. Too many people don't want to pay for the LABOR that makes their lives of luxury possible.

People bitch, quite successfully I might add, about paying taxes for the (MEAGER) common good and bitch about freeloaders: my conclusion . . . Apparently whatever it is that they ARE paying for, with the taxes they do pay, isn't what they want, apparently because it isn't everything their every whim desires.

[applegrove]

21. I hate, hate, hate that. If you want to have good government then pay for it.