[geeks] Taxes

[Sandwich Maker]

" From: Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net>
" 
" Sandwich Maker wrote:
" > " From: Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net>
" > " The government annually publishes a surveyed state-by-state basic cost 
" > " of living for a family of a given size.  Income below that basic cost of 
" > " living is tax-free, regardless of how much money you make in total.
" > 
" > yeah, but that's already unfair.  here in ma, the bcol in boston is
" > much higher than in say the berkshires 200mi away.  my own fair little
" > city, only ~30mi from boston, is half the cost for things like
" > housing.  do the rurals get a free ride or do urbanites get cut off
" > at the knees?
" 
" In real terms, it's not gonna hurt overall tax revenues much to treat 
" the rural folks the same as the urbanites.

that's true; our pop is overwhelmingly urban/suburban.

" It might even encourage 
" people to move out of the cities, and frankly, that'd be a good thing 
" for many reasons.  Sprawling megacities are horribly inefficient and do 
" huge environmental damage.  Decentralization makes much better economic, 
" ecological and social sense.

...except for the spiraling cost of gas...

i live near the edge of my little urban area, and i love being able to
cover all of it -on-foot-.  couldn't do that in the country.

" In the vast majority of cases, the economy 
" of scale is an illusion created by taking an overly narrow view.

that doesn't surprise me one bit.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
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adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought