Where I live you must get permission from the municipal government to have hot water in your home.
That is probably the case wherever you reside in Colorado.
A 'permit' costing $40 is required in order to replace a water heater in Arvada, Colorado. Of course, city officials have told me that this is for 'safety' reasons. But state law already mandates that a 'certified' plumber install the water heating tank -- so, in effect, my family has to pay twice for a redundant service.
Take a moment and reflect on all the government imposed fees, permits and taxes that you have to pay to local, county, special district, state and federal levels of government -- everyone of those is 'permission' from central authority -- because just try and stay out of legal trouble by NOT paying.
Yet for all these fees and taxes, all we hear constantly from government 'leaders' and 'representatives' is that there is not enough money to provide 'necessary' services. So, every level of government is scheming to get you to approve more taxes and more fees ... all the time!
Something is wrong. Now a big part of the problem is that we have reached an overpopulation level where there is diminishing substantive ability for any amount of infrastructure to provide adequate services to so many people. But the other problem is that since the supply-side ideology of Pres. Reagan has held sway in this country, the wealthy elite have been playing on the 'compassion' of liberals to get working and middle class Americans to pay all the bills. Yes, you hear from Democrats and liberals all the time that we must tax ourselves 'for the children' or that must should tax ourselves to build mass transit 'for clean air' or that we must tax ourselves 'for the arts' and on and on and on.
You get what is going on here, don't you? The governing class and the elite transnational corporatists have shills in the liberal 'leadership' that will always try and convince you that YOU must pay more. Meanwhile, as the gap between rich and poor demonstrates, the millionaires and billionaires pay less as a percentage of income every year.
So, I'm joining the tax revolt. And until there is bottom-to-top tax and fee and permit reform in this state and country, I urge you to join, too. NO! NO! NO! To any new taxes. No! to anymore regressive property or sales tax increases for schools or mass transit or new highways or new museums. No! to even the idea of a new $100 increase per car registration fee. No! to any state income tax increases until real progressivity is finally made a part of that system.
We can expect to be punished by government, like we were children, if new tax rates or fees are not approved -- they'll take away sports from the high schools, they won't water the grass in the parks, they will threaten to fire firefighters, so on and so forth. But resisting tyranny always comes at some cost; in the short term we might suffer some, however the benefit in the longer term is greater freedom and equality. Therefore, as a matter of principle working and middle class folks must stop feeding the corporatized government that perpetuates the rule of the two corrupt political parties and subsidizes the richest five percent of American and 'international' citizens.
A senior citizen living on a fixed income should not have to pay $40 to the government to get permission to have hot water in their home. Nor anyone else for that matter. This unquenchable thirst for revenue has invaded too many places in our daily lives. It needs to stop.
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