It is well known that the government uses many different methods to control us and take our money. We often think about our overall tax burden (mine was 45% in 2016) and we notice some large increases in control, like the addition of 600 new speed cameras that breaks NY state law. A rarely considered tactic, however, is the use of fines and fees to deter people from doing things. There are certain things that city, state, and federal governments don’t want people to do. But, in lieu of banning these things outright and causing public outrage, they raise money while guiding us subtly like the sheep that we evidently are.
Take parking meters, for example. They were first implemented in Oklahoma City in the 1930’s to deter people from parking on certain streets. They were only upheld by the courts because they were used as a deterrent, and specifically NOT for revenue. Both reasons are certainly unethical. They have since been utilized in cities nationwide. In 2011, NYC had 82,000 parking spaces that required payment to the city, most of which would not allow you to park for more than an hour or two.
In 2012, NYC extorted over $200,000 from people by forcing them to pay parking meters on their own roads. More importantly to the greedy politicians of NYC, (who consider conservatives the greedy ones) over $500,000,000 dollars was extorted from people in NYC who dared violate authoritarian parking laws on THEIR OWN LAND by issuing them parking tickets. That is more than half of a billion dollars. But it’s ‘not for revenue’. The communists are doing it for the good of the people. At least that’s what they claim. If NYC needed a certain amount of money for their annual budget, why not just apply that to income taxes? Why punish those who try to support the local economy?
Do Americans still know that all land is owned by the people, and government is only created by the people to represent and protect them? It is no longer our land though. Here in NYC, if you ask somebody who owns the streets, or trees, or the air, or environment, 90 percent of people would answer ‘the city’. This is one of the most terrible things about the culture in NYC. The people are completely okay with being slaves to their government.
The same exact principle holds true with taxation for working and earning an income. Why work if NYC, NYS, and the US all punish you for working, and steal a higher PERCENTAGE of your money if you work harder in order to make more. And if you dare work over 40 hours in a week, your company is forced to give 50 percent more money to the government as an interest free loan for the year. Income tax is also working well as a deterrent, as evidenced by the massive decrease in the workforce since Obama took office. When Obama took office in 2008, 66 percent of adults in the US were working. As of today, only 62 percent of adults are working. And 16 million more people have had to go on food stamps under Obama’s destruction of our economy. Almost a sixth of the population is now receiving food stamps, taken directly from paychecks of others.
Congratulations, liberals. You have successfully put in place a foundation that deters people from working. Soon enough, the majority of us will be on food stamps, and we will run out of food and money just like Venezuela, and like communist countries throughout history.
