Sunday, September 22, 2013

Pardon me while I vent.

Living in California has it's advantages, but one of the big disadvantages is all the different ways the state government has of picking your pocket.

Start by noting that after state and federal income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, car registration fees, solar energy charges, and who knows what else, nearly 50% of what I make goes to the government to waste in one way or another.

So Saturday I find in the mail two letters from two separate branches of government tagging me for more.

Below are the two separate notices.  The top one is new this year, a fee levied on property owners to pay for Cal Fire, the state agency that fights forest fires.  Never mind that until this year, their other sources of income, presumably from property taxes, was enough to pay for whatever it is they do.  Never mind that where I live, the worst that happens is a grass fire, and in all the years since I moved here in '91, no one's house has burnt down, and no grass fire has grown beyond maybe five acres.

Further, there is a volunteer fire department station literally within sight of my house.  If I went out back and shouted "Fire!" at the top of my lungs, they could hear me.  They have always handled the occasional grass fire without problem.

Never mind that just this summer Cal Fire and without warning suddenly demanded 135 dollars, and called it a yearly fee, and now it's another 115 only eight months later.  What, I wonder, will it be next month?  To rub salt in the wound, last week I saw a brand new Cal Fire pickup driving down the freeway.  I have the sneaking suspicion my hard earned money is going to pay for all the shiny toys those Cal Fire boys would like to play with, and not to any real fire prevention.  After all, they did such a fine job not preventing and then barely putting out the gigantic Rim fire this year.


























The second bill on the bottom is a registration fee for a cat!  Now when I adopted this cat out of the pound, they seemed really happy to have me do it, and only charged me 60 bucks, which I didn't mind at all since they told me it covered his shots, and they threw in a collar and a bag of cat food too.  About a week later, we discovered he had worms, the shot for which apparently was not covered at the pound.  That was another 150 after a couple of trips to the vet and some pills we had to force feed him.

Now, all of a sudden they want to not only tag me with registration fee, but also a penalty for apparently not paying a bill I have never seen before.  Now, ask yourself what business the state has keeping track of a cat?  They obviously have a bureaucracy in place to keep records, to issue bills like this and to assess fees if their demands aren't met.  How much does that cost, and for what benefit to the taxpayers of the state?  The pound facility I went to to get the cat in the first place was state of the art, with a big lawn, a play area for animals, and all new and separate areas for the different kinds of animals, so they are clearly greedily feeding on my labor without limit.   For me that appears to mean forty bucks now, plus apparently another 15 every year after that, for a cat.  I'll bet all the infrastructure to track, bill and ding non payers costs them more than 15 a year to run and maintain.  In addition, I have to bear the burden of feeding, and doctoring the cat all by myself.  Kitty litter ain't cheap these days.

Screw that. As you can see, the cat is dead.  No money for cats, although they have me by the shorts on the property, and I'll have to pay for Cal Fire's brand new pickup trucks and their gold plated retirement programs.  Very, very reluctantly, but I will pay.  The day will come for these bastards, when all the payers like me just say "no more, " and then the damn "public servants" will have to work past 52 and pay for their own health insurance, like the rest of us fools who think it's honorable to work for a living.

7 comments:

  1. Pretty soon there will be a breathing tax - if 'ya can breathe, you will be taxed. But this is only for people that are still working. If you are on government assistance, they pay you. Where or when is the breaking point?

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    1. Getting pretty close for me. I was reading Plutarch's Lives the other day, and there the Roman Octavian once assessed a 25% tax on citizens to raise money to fight Marc Antony, and nearly had a revolt on his hands. I'm getting a total of 50%, at least, after all the many and various taxes are considered. I see these little bills here and there as a way to cook the frog slowly, and it seems to be working.

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  2. Tax money has went to support and develop the electric car industry. Then tax money went to pay for and advertise the electric cars. now many states are complaining that owners of these cars are not paying any gas tax...so they want to charge a milage tax on all cars. Note that they did not say they want to charge a milage tax on just electric cars, but they want everyone to pay since car milage has gotten better recently. scam all the way

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  3. RIP, rescued cat...

    I've made a decision to leave the liberal paradise partly for the taxation reason. I can live someplace else and pay roughly half of what I now pay to the shouters and marchers (to shout and march) who beg for more money to feed their laziness. The bureaucracy has an unlimited appetite for other people's money and I'm over it.

    I spoke to a Vice President for AMEX who I've known for many years. He ran the numbers and said that it costs 45% less to live in any Rocky Mountain state than it does to live in California. While I live comfortably within my means in CA, I could simply live better somewhere else.

    California (progressive paradise) continually shoves homosexuality/sodomy, their gun control agenda and every other odious thing that they can think of at those who live here. I'm frankly over it. And when I leave, you and those who remain, can pick up what I've been paying to those who eat other men's bread for me. There are very few companies who locate to California anymore. Not many incorporate in this state even if they do business here. And the progressives wonder why that is.

    /rant

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  4. You vented in 2013? That's before you were in the knowledge bank of my humble life. Don't know of being aware of you having ever vented before.

    But did a word search just now.

    Although I'm not a patron, how about some Saint Elmo's fire? On a horse's mane? Just read about that from the WBE 1975. And then thought of you and this creation of a blog of yours.

    That I'd give to see.

    Love you, man, and the Mrs. CW of course!

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  5. sorry about N Cal tho - you folks are salt of the earth

    don't mean to "make light" especially of the fires (for which I word searched)

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