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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 22, 2012 at 11:41am

You bubble-headed booby! Do you realize what you've done?

h' said:

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 22, 2012 at 12:20pm

I think we probably have lost all of the youngsters.

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Permalink Reply by Jimmy Jam on April 22, 2012 at 5:29pm

Bingo. 

Mathew DeGutes said:

It is a revenue grab.  The 'it is worth it if it saves just one life' justification is garbage as they have never used that attitude in any of the other non-revenue generating ventures.

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Permalink Reply by Jason S on April 26, 2012 at 5:39pm

I'm not going to debate whether or not speeding is wrong, but more government power is NEVER the solution.  The more power we allow government to have, the more it will be abused against us.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on April 27, 2012 at 3:44am

The city and state already have the power to issue tickets for moving violations. The ordinance does not give them more power, just more data.

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Permalink Reply by Justin B Newman on April 27, 2012 at 3:58am

I'm happy for it to be a revenue source. It's ultimately an optional tax. Just like parking tickets. Wouldn't it be great if there were only voluntary taxes?

-jbn

Mathew DeGutes said:

It is a revenue grab.  The 'it is worth it if it saves just one life' justification is garbage as they have never used that attitude in any of the other non-revenue generating ventures.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 28, 2012 at 5:27am

Except that the IRS does not hire Halliburton to help with the "tax-collection" and let them keep half for their "help."

That's the issue many people have with the privatization of these speed cameras.   Has nobody ever seen RoboCop?   

Do we want LAZ all over again but this time with speeding tickets????

Justin B Newman said:

I'm happy for it to be a revenue source. It's ultimately an optional tax. Just like parking tickets. Wouldn't it be great if there were only voluntary taxes?

-jbn

Mathew DeGutes said:

It is a revenue grab.  The 'it is worth it if it saves just one life' justification is garbage as they have never used that attitude in any of the other non-revenue generating ventures.

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Permalink Reply by Tim S on April 28, 2012 at 5:53am

Voluntary tax, keeps our taxes down, don't speed you are good, automated fines are OK if it does not affect me, "It's for the kids", revenue grab, etc. Lets look at the core issue here... Underfunded spending and liabilities.

I think the best thing any one has posted and I cant remember if it was here or on one of the many sites decrying this Orwellian tactic. How about we find a way to reduce spending? Our government is spending far to much and we keep getting less and less for our taxes. We pay some of the highest taxes, especially those of us who choose to live in the city of Chicago, in the US and what do we get? Why can't those in power see the horrible choices they have made over the years and correct them... that's right it would require hard decisions that may not get them re-elected, I mean after all Public Service is all about re-election and Doner favours certainly NOT your constituents.

Fun Facts...

- Since 1950, the U.S. population has increased 2.5 times, but government employees have jumped nearly 5 times.

- Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

- More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined.

- Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on April 29, 2012 at 12:01pm

Exactly.  If you don't want to pay, don't speed.  Very simple.  It's an optional tax.

Tony Adams said:

The city and state already have the power to issue tickets for moving violations. The ordinance does not give them more power, just more data.

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Permalink Reply by S on April 29, 2012 at 4:05pm

Tim S said:

I think the best thing any one has posted and I cant remember if it was here or on one of the many sites decrying this Orwellian tactic. How about we find a way to reduce spending? Our government is spending far to much and we keep getting less and less for our taxes. We pay some of the highest taxes, especially those of us who choose to live in the city of Chicago, in the US and what do we get? Why can't those in power see the horrible choices they have made over the years and correct them... that's right it would require hard decisions that may not get them re-elected, I mean after all Public Service is all about re-election and Doner favours certainly NOT your constituents.

 

Fun Facts...

- Since 1950, the U.S. population has increased 2.5 times, but government employees have jumped nearly 5 times.

- Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

- More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined.

- Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees.

 

That's a fairly slanted view of things.  If you look at federal taxes as a percentage of GDP over time, you'll see that they are the lowest they were in over 60 years.  If you look at taxes on various income levels over time, you'll see that they've dropped significantly for the very rich and increased relatively for the middle class.  The highest bracket used to be 90% in the 50s and 60s and were around 70% till the 80s.  The highest bracket is around 35% now.  

To compare employment levels of the public sector with manufacturing which has been declining precipitously over the last few decades is going make it look like the like the public sector has been ballooning.  It's the same deal with industries like farming, mining, etc. where mechanization and offshoring has decreased the  jobs significant.  If you look at public sector jobs as a share of the labor market it has increased but from something like 10% to 15%.  

Frankly, I think most of the current mess is due to the government getting much less in terms of tax revenue than it has historically gotten.  Politicians have beenusing outdated and discredited economic theory to justify cutting taxes for their friends and donors.  Meanwhile corporations (or are we supposed to call them people now?) are using various dodges and schemes to get their effective tax rates to the single digit levels.  And they're extorting various perks and economic aid from state and local companies to remain or build new facilities.  If public sector workers keep getting demonized and the government budgets keep shrinking, we'll probably all end up like colorado springs where people have to write checks each year in order to get the city to turn on street lights on their streets or to cut the grass in their local parks.  

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