For once, I mostly agree with Bill O'Reilly:
Maybe I'm alone here, but the shit that's been going down at City Hall lately is so profoundly embarrassing that it makes me want to deny living here. In an effort to legislate for headlines rather than solve issues, the city recently banned soda from public vending machines and is currently considering banning pet sales because there are too many abandoned hamsters at the SFPCA. Look Gavin, I know you blew your way through college and you're pretty much just winging this gig as mayor, so let me help you out a little bit.
The city has some real problems, like a huge budget deficit that our already ludicrous tax-rate can't balance. And that it's goddamn impossible to find condoms on the 23rd St. Walgreens*. However, Gavin is generally more concerned with addressing the negative externalities of capitalism than running the city. How can we solve these problems at the same time? Taxes.
This graph should actually mean something to a politician. Sadly, Gavin is a talentless jackass in a suit.
Basically, what Gavin is trying to address is that a hamster may cost $25 at Petco, but it costs society additional money because SFPCA needs to care for the animals/toss them in zee ovens. There are a few ways to handle this problem:
- Criminalization: makes you look tough for your campaign for higher office, but doesn't do jack shit (how hard is it to buy drugs?) In these cases, people will just ride the BART to buy pets or buy soda from a bodega.
- Lawsuits: sue the pants off companies hurting America. Generally just makes lawyers rich and slaps wrists.
- Taxation: artificially raises the cost of goods with negative social effects to lower consumption of said goods while raising revenue for the government/regulatory agencies/the NSA's porn addiction.
What am I getting at here? If our elected officials even had the faintest idea as to what they were doing (read: qualified individuals were elected for office, as opposed to windbags like Chris Daly), they would cease making the city look like it is governed by a left-wing idealist version of Sharia law and begin taxing the things that hurt our society. Too many hamsters being euthanized? Put a tax on hamster sales, thus encouraging people to adopt while simultaneously raising funds for the SFPCA. Too many fat kids drinking soda? Tax soda sales within city limits and use the money to fund healthy lunches in school cafeterias.
In short, stop running for Lt. Governor and try to fix the city.
* okay, that last one isn't a problem for City Hall.
(video hat tip to SF Citizen)
