Quote:
Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
Here is where I get confused. If the CEO of Exxon gouges you at the pumps and then uses that money to fly himself first class to a conference, he is not "spending YOUR money"? But if you pay taxes for such things as police services and at a police chiefs meeting they order bagels, then it is "wasting your money"? In either situation money is coming from your pocket to pay for a product and/or service only to be wasted frivilously.
|
I agree with a lot of what you're saying in this thread, but I think there is one key difference between what oil execs do and what government bureaucrats do: the oil industry operates more or less on a free market system: what you pay at the pump is based on the price point that the oil producers have decided upon for maximum profit. The price has nothing to do with how that money is spent. The government, on the other hand, is socially obligated to keep taxes low and to get the maximum value from them. If a particular agency is spending frivolously, it doesn't make your taxes go up but it does take funds away from other organization and contributes to a greater national deficit.
That said, I don't think there was frivolous spending here; based on Rathji's research, the numbers seem completely in line with what they should be.