Value Not Added
Nor expected any time soon. Commenter Simonwise helpfully notes in the “I just got mugged” post below that Massachusetts’ 6.25 percent sales tax is nothing. It’s 21.5 percent Value Added Tax in Ireland.
He’s got a point. Theoretically, if they tried that around here, they’d have to add some value. With our pending 25 percent hike in the sales tax, from 5 percent to 6.25 percent, we’re just paying for pre-existing bad faith, poor management, larceny and parastical behavior.
EU VATs range from 15 percent to 25 percent, tucked into the purchase price before you get to the register. Presumeably “less harmful” that way, to lift a phrase from Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray. The Euros are clearly more advanced than us.
If I wanted to live in Europe, I’d move there. It’s lovely, like a postcard, with lots of historic old stuff from the bad old days and people who say things like “oo-la-la” and “top o’ the mornin to ya” and “ciao.” (And Sharia law and car-torching mobs, but never mind that.) Massachusetts, with Boston’s quaint colonial charm and the spreading woodlands and old farmhouses from which Minutemen mustered, is the next best thing. If I can get out of work for a breather this afternoon, I can stroll past the place where the Liberty Tree was and the Old South Meeting House where the original Boston Tea Party kicked off, both within 10 minutes. Right down the hill from last month’s new Tea Party that lawmakers and significant elements of the local media ignored, on the Boston Common where British regulars drilled. It’s wonderful to walk through dusty old irrelevant forgotten history. Like living in a museum. That’s run by the mob.
It’s always fascinating to mull history. America and its revolution gave Europe some big ideas, though Europe kind of screwed it up, going from ”Let them eat cake” to “Let us have your cake, and eat it, too.” Do they really have anything to teach us? I dunno, our forebears already gave us the CliffsNotes on Europe: Get out while you can. Muskets on Lexington Green at dawn if they try foisting any of their Old World crap around here.
If they tried that VAT business, theoretically the descendants and heirs of Minutemen would rise up. Eventually. But I doubt it. Americans have gone from bang to whimper. We have representative government now, anyway, we deserve what we get. Massachusetts voted in one-party government. And Massachusetts just missed a chance to fire a cannon shot across the Legislature’s bow in November when the electorate voted 70-30 against Question One to eliminate the 5 percent income tax. Too “irresponsible.” The Massachusetts Legislature got the message. The descendants and heirs of Minutemen don’t care. They’ll take it quietly.
So much for ancient history. Regardless of whether Europe has any lessons for Massachusetts, Massachusetts has a big fat lesson for America. This is what one-party Democratic rule gets you. And having fresh-faced outsiders who run promising change doesn’t help, especially when the neophytes turn out to be saps for the hardened pols in their respective legislative branches. And as Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and President Barack Obama assured voters with their appearances on each other’s stumps, they’re the same thing. Basically useless hack-enablers.
And about that quaint Old World notion that any tax adds value … the value was added around here when we left Europe and its bizarre and onerous forms of servitude behind.
Related, Neptunus Lex with an update on California’s tax revolt.
Topics: Boston, Europe, hacks, taxes
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:55 am on Wednesday, May 20, 2009
3 Responses to “Value Not Added”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
May 20th, 2009 at 11:05 am
[...] Jules Crittenden on the descent of a once-great state: Americans have gone from bang to whimper. We have representative government now, anyway, we deserve what we get. Massachusetts voted in one-party government. And Massachusetts just missed a chance to fire a cannon shot across the Legislature’s bow in November when the electorate voted 70-30 against Question One to eliminate the 5 percent income tax. Too “irresponsible.” The Massachusetts Legislature got the message. The descendants and heirs of Minutemen don’t care. They’ll take it quietly. [...]
May 20th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
The corrupt Broon regime in formerly-Great Britain kindly slashed VAT from 17.5% to 15% in response to the global economic collapse, with predictably undetectable consequences - other than items now costing $19.56 where previously $19.99 prevailed.
Of course, the financial cyclone raging in Britain makes ours look like an afternoon rain shower, so the money wasn’t there to do much more (just print some, silly! Ask Little Timmy Turbotax how!).
May 20th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Makes you yearn for an actual, ugly, housecleaning revolution, doesn’t it?