Two Trillion in debt -- America's cities are poor
Does this demonstrate the need for financial responsibility in America's cities and towns? Probably. However, most will raise taxes and/or "fee" the heck out of us.
But why isn't the mainstream (American) media covering this crisis-issue? Oh, wait, they did.
So, how come no one is up in arms about their cities spending millions they don't have, giving businesses tax free services while spending money and effort providing services to those companies and not reigning in their spending habits?
A lot of us have already seen fees go up and services go down in our cities. I'm afraid it'll soon become a pay-to-play society where the local, state and federal governments take money from us up front (income tax) to provide services and directly (fees) to let us access those services.
Don't get me wrong, I understand the need for taxes; I really do. With taxes the government is supposed to provide services to the people, services like police, fire and emergency services. They're supposed to keep us safe, provide our children with an education and maintain our infrastructure. Instead, it seems like credit-based society we've been living in, not only has it's claws in the individual and the corporate entities, but also the public coffers that we expect the government to hold in trust for us.
Where is that trust when you're bankrupting the public's treasury? I mean, seriously, there is a smarter way to do things if you (government officials) would stop acting by the mantra "this is how we've always done it." It doesn't work for the individual to over-extend, it doesn't work for businesses to over-extend and it won't work for public entities, either.
It sort of reminds me of the definition of crazy: doing the same things over and over again expecting a different result.
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