LA Times Essay: Schwarzenegger Should Look at What Taxes Buy

[Lydia Leftcoast]

I am in principle against taxing, because I feel that the people of California have been punished enough from the time they get up in the morning and flush the toilet, they are taxed. Then they go and get a coffee, they are taxed. They get into their car, they are taxed. They go to the gas station, they are taxed. They go for lunch and they are taxed and goes on all day long, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax. So even when they go to bed, you can really go into the bed and fear that you may be getting taxed while you are sleeping. There's a sleeping tax. This is crazy."

Wow, Mr. S. �\ is it really as bad as that? A sleeping tax? Would that tax be a flat per diem rate, or hourly, so that insomniacs get a break?

I asked my truth squad to report on what Mr. S. was saying, and it turns out it's all on the up and up.

"From the time they get up in the morning and flush the toilet " Absolutely true. We pay a sewer tax so that we can flush instead of digging a hole in the backyard. We pay tax for treatment plants and pipes and valves so that sewage doesn't back up in the streets and start typhoid and diphtheria epidemics, which used to happen before public sanitation got better.
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A member of the New Colonist mailing list, a man who lives happily in Los Angeles without a car, posted this link with the comment:

"Beautiful story! At last someone says it out loud and in public.

In truth, anti-taxers are anti-community and ultimately,
anti-civilization."

[RobertSeattle]

1. Excellent

Arnold's "tax" blurb caught me as suspect too - I'm glad someone came up with a great response.

Never thought of public handling of sewage as being a liberal/progressive idea, but I suppose it is. Real conservatives crap in their backyards!

[OldSoldier]

2. There's a "sleeping tax" everywhere

It's called Room and Meals tax--every area has some sort of special tax on its hospitality industry. (In Cumberland County, NC, it's one percent on meals and two on lodging--some places in Minnesota have double-digit R&M taxes.)

Let's analyze Arnie's tax diatribe...

* Get up in the morning and flush the toilet, they are taxed: Well, there's the two gallons of water that you buy from the municipal water system to flush the toilet; if you consider any money given to a government entity a "tax," then flushing the toilet is taxed.

* They go and get a coffee, they are taxed: Yes, there is Sales Tax. Move along, nothing to see here.

* They get into their car, they are taxed: Gas tax, road tax, tax on the car, if you consider your car registration fee a tax, then there's a registration tax...

* They go for lunch and they are taxed: Room and meals tax, sales tax (separate line item--room and meals tax stays at the local level, which explains why North Carolina has a couple hundred different room & meals tax rates)

They said Arnold was the New Reagan. In a way that's true; Reagan was deathly afraid of taxation and so, apparently, is Schwarzenegger.

[Bozita]

3. Perhaps Ah-nuld suffers from insomnia.

He should go to Afghanistan. No taxes.

No safety. No services. No infrastructure.

You get what you pay for.