[quote=livinincali][quote=CA renter]
Absolutely! I want labor’s money out of politics, too; though fraud, waste, and abuse are more likely to happen between private contractors (among a host of other private interests) and public entities because the private stakeholders are less scrutinized and better protected than public employees. We can eliminate labor’s money just as soon as capital’s money is out (and every other special interest group’s money, too) — ALL OF IT. Until then, labor absolutely needs to have a seat at the table.[/quote]
It’s too bad the the one paying the bills (the common taxpayer) doesn’t have a seat at the table. Whether the politician is beholden to special interests or public labor unions the result for the tax payer is the same. Take more from us to give to some special group. Whether your corporate special interest or public sector union, in my eyes you’re both greedy leeches.[/quote]
Actually, there are quite a few taxpayer advocacy groups who are very active in politics. Again, they are just one type of many stakeholder groups. People like Howard Jarvis might like to lower taxes for landlords (who didn’t need it, and who didn’t pass the savings on to renters, as Jarvis had assured before Prop 13’s passage), but they do so at the expense of all of the other stakeholder groups [edited to add]…including other taxpayers. Different types of taxpayers (income, VAT, sales, property, corporate/business, etc.) are also competing stakeholders. Even the different types of income taxpayers are competing stakeholders — earned vs. unearned income, and the differences between and among those types of incomes.
Too many people tend to forget that without taxes and the infrastructure they support, people would not be nearly as prosperous to begin with. So taxes support the infrastructure, and the infrastructure enables businesses and their employees to make money…a portion of which goes toward tax expenditures which create and maintain infrastructure which enables the businesses to thrive, etc., etc. It’s a symbiotic relationship, not a unilateral one.
