Saturday, July 28, 2007

Something Has Gone Wrong Too Long

Something has gone really wrong in the justice system and it took the Cheshire horror to bring it to light. Actually the problem has been with us all along and we're just used to it. The simple fact of the matter is when people commit crimes they don't go to jail, or if they do go its not for very long. The Cheshire incident the criminals were given a free pass to do whatever they wanted knowing they just simply will not be locked up. How has it gotten this far? Imagine being a judge and having a convicted arm robber in front of you and having the opportunity to put him behind bars for 25 years, why wouldn't you, why wouldn't anyone? But it happens. The suspicion is that it takes a high intellect to figure out that doing the obvious is somehow wrong and that there is something other then common reason that is so superior. Whatever the case may be it is time to stop trying to understand more about suppose root causes of crime and just simply become "stupid" again and lock up a criminal when they commit a crime. Can't believe this has to be said.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Chershire Horror

The horrible news in Cheshire of a home invasion that took lives is just incomprehensible. An act of evil for evil sake. Wtbyspectblog extends its condolences to the family and friends of the victims. But what about the perpetrators, what were they possibly thinking or planning, to what end were they looking to achieve? Such acts boggles the mind. If just one perpetrator then perhaps we can say it was an act of singular derangement but when it is more then one it becomes an extraordinary mystery into the workings of human evil only because we can deduce that there was planning, a discussion. What words amongst the two could've been exchanged, what was the true purpose. We would hope that justice is done to these two and perhaps an even a worse fate.

Monday, July 23, 2007

How Taxes And Economies Works

Less then 8% of taxes levied in Waterbury are on business. Now that is somewhat a small number compared to the rest of the budget, but for the businesses paying them it's a lot. And since businesses don't vote in the ballot box they do vote with moving vans and leases in other towns and states.

Here's a short lesson on how things work (wtbyspecblog can do this). Business's exist to hire people to do things. These people get salaries to pay taxes buy cars, homes and food (from other business's) and this is what we call economy.

Lets say something really radical happened and Waterbury eliminated its business tax. Well there would be such an uproar because us poor working suckers would have to pay the difference and that's no fair. But this is false and here's why.

First of all you don't cut taxes in the city. It can be done but city taxes aren't like income or sales taxes. Those taxes are set by a number, a percentage added to payroll or consumer items. City taxes are set by mill rates which are tied to property assesments (in business, inventory and property) and the mill rate is set by whatever the budget needs it to be to pay the bills. So you don't cut taxes you cut the budget, if the budget grows then the mill rate grows and visa versa. So in order to cut taxes you would first have to cut spending in this case by 7-8% first. This is why there is no reshuffling of the tax burden.

So lets say Waterbury cut its budget to eliminate the business tax, what would happen? What won't happen is businesses leaving the city to lower cost in taxes, like what is happening now. You can't get lower then zero. In fact since you can't get lower then zero other employers may look to Waterbury to get in on zero and bring with them employees. The effect will be is that by Waterbury eliminating a tax it can actually increase the number of businesses which will need employees who will spend money on cars, houses, socks, video games, bagles, see how this works. If zero brings in business that brings in people who spend money and pay taxes, then that 7-8% cut in taxes could actually yeild more revenue because of a healthier economic base. You cut taxes and increase revenue, imagine.

Waterbury has one of the highest taxes in the state. Did you know that Waterbury leads the state in unemployment?

No Matter

Waterbury Spectator is an opinion blog located in Waterbury Connecticut about Waterbury and everything else besides. This grand project took me seconds to create and is a testament to what a remarkable country we live in. About a week ago I was viewing an old newspaper page found in a lost corner of a friends workshop, it was dated 1985. One of the ads was for a word processor. The machine was a screen attached to a keyboard and the memory was stored on disk. The cost was over $2000.00. a total reversal of what we are used to seeing in old newspaper ads, not in the inferiority of the product compared to today's computers but of the price. If there were an ad for, say, shoes or overcoats they would be ridiculously cheap. But here's a primitive forerunner of what I'm typing on now and its ridiculously more expensive.

Now suppose Waterbury Spectator were launched then? I would need that word processor, I suppose, a forest of trees for paper and a fleet of trucks for delivery to every home in town every day to have the same affect, well not the same actually because seconds from typing this people all over the world could read it. This is what I mean about remarkable country, we invented it all. Jtalos is a condensed version of John Talleos just in case you were wondering. I could be reached via email at jtalos98@yahoo.com.