Populist Reform of the Democratic Party
In reply to the discussion: "Where Are the Populist Democrats?" [View all]merrily
(45,251 posts)Who puts more wear and tear on infrastructure (roads, bridges, airports, ports, railroads), someone earning $25K a year waiting tables or someone with loads of money and a lot of stock in an import export business (to give just one example)? Who pollutes the air and water more? Who gets benefit after benefit from government for being a "job creator," even if the majority of the jobs created are overseas? When was the last time you got invited to a social event held by the Mayor or the Governor or the President at taxpayer expense? And so on. The airwaves are supposed to be public. How many millions have you made from them? And so one.
It's not they should pay more taxes so we can get their money. It's that their fair share should be much more than they've been paying. Probably more than they ever will pay.
Another example, a local one for me. A lovely park on the Boston waterfront was renovated. The renovation was supposed to cost one million. It ended costing several million. No big surprise there. However, the park stayed dug up a long time. No one could use it. Finally, it was finished. Yeayyy. But...it looked exactly the same from the street. So, I asked someone what they had done to the park. Answer: "They made it smaller."
Whaaaaa? All that time and tax money to make a park smaller? Why? More parking for boats. Now, why did everyone who owns a bit of a condo in Boston (or a mansion) have to chip in real estate taxes to make a public park smaller so more boats could park? There is a small hotel on the waterfront that caters to boat owners. If I had to guess why, my money is on guest parking for that hotel so the owner of that hotel can get richer. On my dime.