NY Times Article on Tobacco Taxes

Wow, haven't done Blogger in quite a while.

That said, I stand totally VERKLEMPT (spelling?) on the NY Times article on Tobacco taxes, and how "roll your own" tobacco leaf companies like McClintock are getting around the Obama Administration's taxes on cigarette tobacco.

Why? Not for the reasons you think. Just for what I think, I guess.

Look, Obama smokes. And he is one of the privileged class -- like you, me, anybody who is wise enough to read this -- who can afford to smoke in this era of "tax the smokers".

Apparently, it's perfectly fine and okay to give government workers (in these times) gold-plated pensions, salaries that exceed the private sector's wages, and so on. God forbid these valiant "public servants" endure tough times like the rest of us, have to fret about the viability of their jobs, or worry about their next mortgage payment.

Nay, government employment (federal, state, local and education) will continue apace. Employees in such jobs will continue to garner what to all others amount to gilt-edged benefits -- solid healthcare with negligible co-pay, inviolable defined-benefit pensions, etc.

And the rest of us, those not on the government teat, who try to produce the wealth necessary to support the taxes that provide for these dedicated "public servants' -- apparently must acquiesce. Since, presumably (ironic here), our efforts are not as valuable or noteworthy as those brave "public servants"...

Ya know, "public servants" doesn't mean what it did when my father was alive... but I have to admit, my Dad saw this coming.

When during the late stages of the Vietnam War, he saw half of my cousins get Master's degrees in Education so they could be exempt from the Draft, dear old Dad said, "Just watch. They are taking public education away from the old schoolmarms, and pretty soon, it's going be all about teachers who want to make more money, because they have Master's degrees and think that they are somehow owed it."

Which is exactly what happened. Teaching our kids went from a second-career Mom or spinster -- who knew what little terrors kids really were, because the spinsters/Moms had life lessons -- to a "highly educated professional" who somehow "understood children" because they had "advanced degrees".

Advanced degrees is mostly a myth in this realm, quite honestly. Sure, it's neat and helpful to have an advanced degree in Education from a real "name" college, say UC Berkeley or similar. Your children might benefit from a teacher who has the intellectual capacity to obtain such a degree. But most of these "advanced degree" teachers don't get their Master's from perceived "great-institutions". They get them from the path of least resistance institutions, and they do so because a "Master's" from anywhere is more lucrative than a simple Bachelor's from somewhere.

In other words, most of these teachers are in on the scam.

I had a great argument recently with a former Assistant Principal of a California High School. She was being paid $120K per year before she retired (with full benefits). She said, "You couldn't do my job." I said, "You're right, I couldn't. But I never wanted to. But I would think, that with the benefits and salary that you rose to, somebody else out there could have done your job as well as you did." And I went on with a long list of names, of other people that we mutually knew who had the temperament and ability to have done her job, but who worked in the private sector for less money or benefits.

To which she acquiesced. As in, you're right, other people could have done that job... but I was the lucky one who exploited the opportunity. in other words, FYJIGM... which in Los Angeles city worker parlance, I am made to understood, stands for "Fuck You, Jack, I Got Mine".

This is a long-winded post, so I will bring it back to the leaf tobacco companies, and President Obama.

Our government today stands ready to make certain people a privileged class. If you can afford it, you are privileged. If you cannot afford it, and try to "roll-your-own" (that is, try to make the best out of a bad situation, but continue on with your own pursuit of happiness and liberty), this Government will still try to find you out and make it uneconomic for you to enjoy said liberties.

This state of affairs is WRONG. It smacks of "serve the government BORG", at the expense of one's self.

This new tobacco tax is WRONG from the days of George Washington.

Even George Washington, who suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, would understand that -- you know what?, gasp -- Americans like their liberties. They LOVE their liberties.

And the governments' trying one way to tax something is at first "okay, reasonable enough". But then their governments' trying another "something", and later our governments incessantly hammering at something that Americans enjoy, and want to be part of our liberty... at some point, goes against the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" doctrine (that Jefferson, an anti-Federalist, as opposed to Washington, wrote in).

Question: what can happen next? The government decides that you can't grow your own tobacco, and smoke it on your own land, without being taxed exorbitantly?

Question: How is this any different than your raising your own Hogs (you know, bacon fat is bad for you), or growing your own Celery (too much salt content, perhaps)?

As Wikipedia states, even George Washington's "internal war" was unsuccessful: "The hated whiskey tax was repealed in 1803, having been largely unenforceable outside of Western Pennsylvania, and even there never having been collected with much success."

In a tremendous lifetime of service to others, the only stain (as Americans) that one could ascribe to the Father of Our Country, George Washinton, is his supression of the Whiskey Rebellion. It is in that one solitary action that George Washington forgot that the United States of America is made by and for the benefit of the People of this Country.

It is not made by the Government, nor those who work for the Government. It is for the People.

The end.