At the Twilight's Last Gleaming: Property taxes and pain tolerance

January 27, 2009

Property taxes and pain tolerance

Forbes has published a Tax Foundation table ranking 788 U.S. counties according to how much is paid in property taxes as a percentage of household income. The rankings are based on data from the 2007 U.S. Census American Community Survey.

New York and New Jersey take top honors in the quest to consume the largest portion of the citizens' hard-earned money: 22 of the 25 highest counties! And yet, people still consent to live there, and -- most likely -- keep voting for the folks who imposed the levies on them in the first place. Why?

#1, Passaic County in New Jersey, taxes away 8.5% of its citizens' median income. The rate for my county is less than half of that, and it is is apparently below the pain threshold of the majority of the voters. I sometimes complain about my property tax bill, but I expect that I would squeal like a stuck pig if I was presented with a bill like the ones that the citizens of New York and New Jersey routinely pay.

If you are a property owner in one of the top-ranked counties, I would love to hear your thoughts about your property taxes, and about the general attitude of your fellow citizens there.

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What Happened to C-Pol?

For over a decade, this blog was called "C-POL: Constitutionalist, Conservative Politics". Over time, my deep-thought ponderings have been moving away from the rough-and-tumble of everyday political wrangling and toward the larger philosophical, ideological, and cultural currents of our age.

I've changed the title of the blog to highlight my conviction that the "fundamental transformation" (to adapt President Obama's phrase) of the United States that's currently underway is, in the long run, bad not only for this country but for the world in general.

Scoff if you must; I'm okay with that. I aim to make my case as time goes on. I'm okay with being on the "wrong side of history" if I'm actually right.

Why our country is where it is

As I have traveled across the country, I have been astounded just how many of our fellow citizens feel strongly about their constitutional rights but have no idea what they are, or for that matter, what the Constitution says. I am not suggesting that they become Constitutional scholars -- whatever that means. I am suggesting, however, that if one feels strongly about his or her rights, it does make sense to know generally what the Constitution says about them. It is at least as easy to understand as a cell phone contract -- and vastly more important.

-- Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, October 16, 2008 speech

The U.S. is not a democracy!

Q. If we are not a democracy, why are our officials elected by a majority of the people, and why are our laws passed by a majority of the lawmakers?

A. We are not a democracy because both the people and the lawmakers are limited by the fundamental law of the land, our written Constitution. Election by the people is not a grant of power beyond the constitutional limits of the office. A representative government limited by law is a republic, not a democracy. In a republic a majority of the people cannot vote away their own rights, or the rights of others -- unless ... unless they step outside the Constitution.

-- Preserve The Constitution, By Don Fotheringham (October, 1995)

The Cancer of Democracy

Bread and Circuses is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader--the barbarians enter Rome.

— Lazarus Long, in Robert Heinlein's To Sail Beyond the Sunset

At the Twilight's Last Gleaming

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January 27, 2009

Property taxes and pain tolerance

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