Those of you who pay attention to this space on a regular basis may have noticed that there hasn’t been a whole lot to take notice of over the last few weeks. I would say I’m sorry, but I’d be lying. Truth is, in the 5 or so years I’ve been keeping this site up this has been the first time that I’ve looked around me and be so overwhelmingly bored with what I see that I’ve found little to nothing worth commenting on. It’s a terrible feeling, to be honest. Just bounce between local politics that leave one wondering if the rise of a stupid class has finally taken permanent hold of our lives, to national politics which seems to be using a three ring circus run by school children as it’s operating model, to individuals who act shocked when their chimpanzee house mates eat their friends faces; well the material is certainly there but even acknowledging the mess of a society we currently have seems like an exercise in forced irony. But alas, looking at my site stats people keep coming here looking for something and the guilt sets in. So here’s a bit of a brain dump to keep those of you who who have a flair for the obvious, occupied. Enjoy.
Local budget crisis
Let me be fair here, I KNOW the city manager and council have a tough road ahead and the last place I would want to be right now is in their shoes. And that’s not only due to the abysmal fashion sense on display every Tuesday night. I actually feel for these men and women; sort of. Lets be honest here, our problems in Worcester didn’t start on Sept 16th 2008, as with most municipal governments it started long before most of us were born. Now we’re in a mad race to keep the wheels from falling off the bus but unfortunately it seems like nobody remembers what a wheel looks like. The biggest problem in worcester right now isn’t a lack of funds, it’s a signal to noise ratio heavy on the noise. The most telling example of this I’ve seen is the annual shit show known as our highest paid city employee list. Take a look at this mess if you’ve got a chance. I’m going to avoid the obvious and not by name the one city department that dominates the list (again, trying not to force the irony folks). But what the fuck? We’re paying people over $100k a year to do jobs that used to be so underfunded they demanded a pension system just to allow folks to retire and still be poor. Now those same jobs will get you a pair of luxury SUVs, a second home at the Cape and a boat; yet the pensions are still in play. The strangest phenomenon occurs if you try and explain to the recipients of these salaries that in the private sector we don’t all make 6 figure salaries. Go ahead an try it… the ignorance is simply staggering. Just as a point of reference I don’t know many in the private sector who haven’t experienced some degree of salary freeze or roll back this year, if not loosing their jobs altogether. Not as a reaction to the market place, but as a preventive measure to hold off further economic pummeling. Ultimately, thats our real problem in Worcester. Not that we pay people way more than they could ever dream of being worth. But that we only react. If you try and think of this recession/depression not as the start of bad times, but instead as the result of terrible policy then we’re all to blame for not correcting these issues over the last two decades of relative stability and growth. It’s certainly fair to focus intensely on keeping the machine running, but if the byproduct of that work does not include planning for long term stability in municipal governance than we deserve everything get get, or don’t get as the case may likely be. If 85 percent of the city’s operational budget consists of personnel costs, than there is only one place to look for increased responsibility in spending and thus far we’re doing it wrong, very wrong.
Federal budget crisis
I have nothing to say. Why? Because I’m not a economist with a lifetime of studying macroeconomics on my resume. Neither are you and that’s worth thinking about. But I will give you one helpful bit of knowledge that was probably skipped over in your public school education; comparisons to the New Deal make you look stupid. After the Great Depression, even with the massive spending during the 30’s unemployment stayed ridiculously high until we decided to ‘employ’ 16 million Americans in the Nazi killing business and Keynesianism was applied to military spending. If you’re expecting the stimulus bill to fix everything… well I hope that works out for you but it’s not that simple. ‘Change you can believe in’ is the new ‘history repeats itself’.
People living with monkeys
Tragic. OK got that out of the way. Folks, chimpanzees are not cute pets, they’re wild animals, got it? So unless you think living with an incontinent, criminally insane and overly hairy person with the strength of 10 men sounds like a good time please don’t expect me to feel bad for people who have their faces eaten by primates wearing track pants. If there is anything truly upsetting about this Travis the chimp episode in Stamford CT last week, it’s that the Stamford PD didn’t feel it necessary to shoot the damn thing until if decided to eat someone’s nose. Personally I would have thought stealing its ‘mothers’ car and driving around town would have been the final straw, but apparently the man in the yellow hat was able to intervene. Nature 1 – Humans 0; Happy Birthday Darwin!
Taxes, taxes and more taxes
It’s how we fix everything, right? Need more money to pay more ridiculous salaries, just raise taxes. I typically put myself in the ‘taxation = political laziness’ camp. But there are some interesting side bets with Gov. Patricks newish beer tax. It really wasn’t too long ago that we lived in a dry country, in theory. One of the interesting myths surrounding the end of prohibition is how, exactly, it ended. Seems we like to think some well intentioned, right thinking congressmen realized the inherent flaws of prohibition and decided to kill it on a whim. Not so much. If not for the Great Depression we may very well still be a dry country. What resurrected ones right to drink ones sorrows away was the opportunity to tax. By legalizing booze, we legitimized an existing (if legally illegitimate) industry ripe for taxation and funneled vast sums of wealth from the black market to government and the open market. And equally important the revenue generated from taxing booze far out matched the cost of fighting it. So while Patricks plan is certainly ludicrous, it isn’t without precedent. If anything we should be looking to expand upon that model. While I still think taxes are lazy, now is the time to be reevaluating all controlled substances to weigh their potential to generate revenue.
America, Fuck Yeah
That’s all for now folks. Someone out there, please do something interesting.
Please?
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The picture of the wheelchair couple at the end is hilarious.
The cow on the roof is also great.
If you are looking for responsible governance, look towards China.
How fucking sad is that? Maybe we all need our faces eaten off by diaper wearing monkeys.