I couldn't let this pass. The New York Post reports that most New Yorkers consider the state government to be dysfunctional. I've said in response that all levels of government, and corporations have been functioning very well for those siphoning money from them. Two kinds of people have been getting richer: the top executives that sit on each others' boards and vote each other compensation that even pro-business, pro-capitalist (but more or less honest) publications such as The Economist and the Financial Times call larcenous. And today's senior citizens, who have voted each other benefits they have refused to pay for, passing the cost to future generations who will be poorer. Especially retired public employees. Well guess who the Post's F. Dicker spoke to get man on the street complaints about dysfunctional government?
"The poll didn't surprise many Manhattan residents interviewed yesterday. Laurie Lasker, 63, a retired teacher, declared, 'All of our politicians seem to be criminal. It's very disconcerting.'"
Hey Laurie, if you weren't getting a deal that only some people can get, because it is at their expense, you'd still be working, if not as a teacher then in another job. And your retiree health care would be no richer than the health care guaranteed to all Americans, despite opposition from AFSME, the public employee umbrella union. And you would have contributed far more to your own pension than you have, and would be contributing more to your own health care, than you are. And your retirement income would be taxed, by New York's state and local income taxes, at the same rate as the serf's wage income, rather than exempt.
"Venture capitalist Ian Sigalow, 31, said, 'Politicians have a hard time doing what's right for both the city and the state of New York.'"
Yo Ian, if the federal government could do what was right you would pay the same taxes on your work income as those who get W2s, unless you invested and put at risk money you previously earned and previously paid taxes on at that rate. Rather than pretend that income was a capital gain, and pay 15% in federal taxes compared with 30% to 40% for the middle class (including the payroll tax and wages taxed as ordinary income). And you'd actually have to wisely allocate capital to get rich, instead of being in an industry where people get rich by ripping people off.
It's amazing the people who think they deserve more.