I Don’t Think That’s What He Meant
I don’t think this is what President Obama meant when he said he wanted government to “help people who needed help.”
He sleeps under a bridge, washes in a public bathroom and was panhandling for booze money 11 months ago, but now Larry Moore is the best-dressed shoeshine man in the city. When he gets up from his cardboard mattress, he puts on a coat and tie. It’s a reminder of how he has turned things around.
In fact, until last week it looked like Moore was going to have saved enough money to rent a room and get off the street for the first time in six years. But then, in a breathtakingly clueless move, an official for the Department of Public Works told Moore that he has to fork over the money he saved for his first month’s rent to purchase a $491 sidewalk vendor permit.
“I had $573 ready to go,” Moore said, who needs $600 for the rent. “This tore that up. But I’ve been homeless for six years. Another six weeks isn’t going to kill me.”
The bureaucrat told Moore that she found out about his business after reading about his success in this paper.
I believe this bureaucrat’s photo can be found in the dictionary under “heartless.”
Photo Credit: San Francisco Chronicle
America: the land of the free (to pay taxes and fees)
Pretty nice post. I just came by your blog and wanted to say
that I’ve really liked reading your blog posts. Anyway
I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon!
That is 100% pure b$#%^@#t. If I were him I’d challenge the city leader to stop me. What is she really going to do to a homeless guy. If she sends the cops after him he’ll end up with three hots and a cot.
Better than the street if I don’t say so myself.
Eventually, the feedback loop on higher taxes and fees creates a situation where people in mass just ignore the government which in turn creates a lower amount of fees and taxes collected.
There is definitely a breaking point where the state will collect less even with a higher rate.
Hey man, long time no see!
Very true, and I think that breaking point is lower than you might think. Witness the recent tax rate increases and declines in revenue here in California.