I don’t really feel defensive as much as not fully understood. I think part of that is based upon the fact I don’t fully understand where you are coming from. Please help me understand. Educate me on the marketability of my citizenship. Is it something I can put on E-Bay?

Do you think that there is a dollar amount on the value of your American citizenship? Would you sell it to rich Russian or a poor Haitian? Would you charge them the same if you had to take their place in Russia or Haiti? If not, what would you say the “market value” of your citizenship would be? Would it change upon who you sold it to and where you had to move to once you sold it?

IMO, government engages in many things that it should not and I view that as my tax money not well spent. I don’t think that I am over-taxed that much. I think that many others who make more money than I do are over-taxed and one day, I hope to earn as much money as they do. THEN I will be over-taxed.

I honestly have no clue as to what you mean by “You think the cost of continuing as an American is too high.” I am happy to stay right here and keep paying my taxes. That doesn’t mean I want to see my tax dollars wasted.

Street rendition of truth. ?

You could vote with your feet.

Reply in jest. Don’t be serious about what government provides you or what it’s worth to be an American.

You’re stuck with it. You think the cost of continuing as an American is too high.

You assume you’re overtaxed but admit there are priceless intangibles that you have never earned.

When asked for the fair market values, you retreat to nativism. Some people, Americans, are risking their lives and therefore all of their future earnings to maintain your intangibles. Other people, not native, are risking their lives to live here illegally. So there is a “market worth” to those intangibles.

If you feel defensive, keep replying. I am satisfied with your replies as being fully responsive and representative of your beliefs.

Frankly, with the Harris family’s White Acre Farms beef, I think y’all have the best thing going. Mmmmm-mmm.

The MARTA governing board is a problem, agreed, and I know that Reps. Millar and Jacobs, both from Atlanta, know this. Part of making MARTA less of a financial sucking chest wound is to replace or diminish the power of its’ Board. Just like we did with Grady, before it got millions from Home Depot founder. Grady cannot turn a profit either, but it is a major tertiary care facility and cannot go away.

I understand the reluctance of anyone not in Atlanta putting one penney toward MARTA with the current Board in place. But having the burden of both organizations fall on Fulton and DeKalb counties is not right either.

Don’t try to act like you aren’t part of the problem and this isn’t a place where you can make a difference at the ballot box.

Yeah. Except stop referring to it as “revenue” as it is actually tax dollars squeezed out of every man, woman, and child and wasted on crap authorized by clowns masquerading as elected public officials.

This state has proven itself time after time to be inept with just about everything it attempts to do. How’s that GRTA working out?

The fact is that GRTA sucks, MARTA sucks, and all we have to look forward to in this state is a long string of nothing but the most incompetent leaders a populace could ever have a nightmare about.

If one is an American citizen, that is not a function of market forces. It’s not something that can be bought or sold; at least should not be in principal.

My tax dollars, on the other hand, should be reserved for legitimate functions of government. Art, as an industry, should be subject to the functions of supply and demand. Selected hobbies, be they art or fishing, should not be subsidized by the government. If government is going to write a check to anyone with a hobby, I like to eat chips and watch TV. I don’t fish in real life, but I don’t live in a hut down by the river either.

I understand your response.

When asked to live or die by market competition, you prefer nativism. But apply your concepts of competition to others that you don’t like.

Nice double standard and conflicting philosophy.

Hope you and Sonny have fun fishing.

You travel down a strange path. I have yet to decipher what I would pay to be an American citizen has to do with what the government should be spending our money on. Are you suggesting that we open up or borders and charge people to come in to off set the deficit?

Your math question leaves out variables such as the exchange rate that will vary. On some days the Yen is up, and on other days it is down.

Trying to answer your question, going by your strange logic, I live in mud hut in an undeveloped county. It’s unlikely I would come into US currency in that circumstance and I might even barter as opposed to using currency.

Let’s say in live in a mud hut down by the river. (I hope it doesn’t flood.) I am a fisherman and I catch 20 fish a day. (I use a string and a hook. I’m to poor to buy worms.) It takes me five fish a day to live, so I can spend or save fifteen fish a day. I might use 1 extra fish to go to the movies ( pay for a ride to watch a lion eat something.)
I suppose I would save 104 fish a week for my trip to the US. Over maybe five years of saving, I would be able to pay 27,040 fish to come to the US. Do you know anyone who would take them (almost all of them are rotten, I don‘t own a refrigerator) and let me in the US? Is that enough or do I have to fish some more? (I am assuming my fish are tax free in the country I live in, and I haven’t been eatten by a lion.)

BTW, I have been told that I was a planned birth, but maybe my parents were just being nice. I’m not sure what that has to do with the topic either.

Now I’ve given you a figure (in fish) of what I hope would be enough to get me into the US. In the going global rate, I’m not sure what the tax would be. The US may have tariffs on fish, but Georgia doesn’t tax food items.

Do you think we can collect taxes from people who don’t have money?

MD

LOL

Sincerely, thank you for the time you took not to answer the question. It a was thoughtful and reflective response.

But the question goes to the issue you did touch. There are intangibles in our quality of life. You don’t want to put a market value on what you have.

That’s fine.

I’m suggesting your birth was an accident and you seem to assert that yourself.

But if you had to buy your citizenship every year at the going global rate, what would that TAX be? Including the things you don’t want.

It’s a simple matter, my friend. Here’s every you got last year, if you don’t want that next year, vote with your feet.

If you want some but not all, too bad. It’s a package deal. Pay the price of admission. What are you willing to pay …

That’s the real tax discussion.

Mozart: taxation has been used for social engineering for nearly 70 years and — surprise! — we’re all still here.

Scary people who have scarier thoughts.

The solution is not for the state to takeover MARTA. That would be like adopting a bear that you know will eat you out of house and home.

Privatize the service. Get the governing “authority” out of the way…far out of the way from the wasteful spending decisions they make.

I can understand cutting taxes when we are meeting are obligations, but at this point, cutting taxes even further is similar to failing to pay your bills so you can go out to dinner.

I mean, this may work for the folks down at the Capitol who go along and eat fancy meals thanks to lobbyists, but in real Georgia, we’re at the point of 4 day school weeks, not enough cops on the street for safety, and broken down roads.

Be responsibe, not irresponsible.