Kim does it again
Regarding “Council boosts GET” (Tribune-Herald, March 14): Oh, dear, here we go again. Another tax increase, this time a GET increase that applies to almost everything we buy and/or do.
What is really so irritating is that the mayor is quoted “… administration will likely use the new money for police, parks maintenance and homeless services.” Surely, this is one of the most egregious examples of taxing and spending — tax the people first and then decide how they would spend it?
Yes, Mayor Harry Kim has done it again, cementing his gold medal status in the tax-and-spend tournament.
Seriously, all my life has been a case of not spending what I don’t have. Especially in the commercial banking business, where banks gather other people’s deposits and lend those funds to others, making a business in the process.
If a business in town was to just raise prices of their products and services, and then later decide how to spend the increased revenue, they would soon buckle to competition. Perhaps that is the problem with our tax-and-spend county officials — they have no competition and have never run a successful business?
I am waiting for the day when a candidate running for elected office announces he/she will do everything they can to improve the quality of government services by cutting overhead. (I.e., firing swaths of nonperforming and unproductive bodies!)
Whatever happened to the Founding Fathers’ vision of government functioning essentially for defense and infrastructure, and leaving everything else to the private sector?
But it really is “we the people” who are to blame for this situation. It is “we the people” who voted for Mayor Kim and the council members.
Hopefully, “we the people” will recognize the problem before it is too late — there might come a time when the OPM (other people’s money) runs out!
Chris Tamm
Hilo
‘Stupid’ cartoon
Tuesday’s Commentary section featured a cartoon that had a cigarette package equating socialism with communism.
Here’s some news I want to share: Socialism is not communism. Bernie Sanders is not a communist. Capitalism, conversely is not patriotism. Our country’s founders did not establish an economic system.
The cartoon, to be blunt, was simplistic, divisive and, frankly, stupid. We have far too much knee-jerk name-calling in our nation.
Peter Easterling
Pahoa
