Will History Repeat?

A Newsletter for the Overburdened Taxpayers of Vancouver Washington
September 11, 2007

One of the most widely read books of all time are “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”. Written in 1788 by Edward Gibbon, it sets forth five basic reasons why that great civilization withered and died. These were:

* The Undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis for human society.

* Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.

* The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral.

* The building of great armaments when the real enemy was within – the decay of individual responsibility.

* A decay of religion; faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people.

The oft-heard warning that “history repeats itself” has an ominous meaning in the light of the above.

It is time to question local government spending on the various programs that are specific to an area of the city such as the downtown area to the detriment of the rest of the Vancouver. Investing of your hard earned tax dollars in a failed area and then demanding you the taxpayer pay for the poor decisions made needs to stop.

A solution would be a full disclosure and a public discussion to obtain voter acceptance of major financial projects. It is time to change a dictatorial type government to an open one of Democracy. More often than none private downtown developers are the beneficiaries of the tax breaks, giveaway of public property and tax exemptions that you and I do not receive. Vancouver has its own identity apart from Portland and could go forward if the politicians would listen to the people they represent.

Charlie Stemper Candidate for City Council Position #5 City of Vancouver USA

Last 2 posts in Local elections

Where Fools Walk In - July 29th, 2008
91% of Us are Angry Extremists - July 28th, 2008

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2 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

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Charlie,

Another idea that I’ve been developing is municipal savings accounts where 1% of revenue goes into local bank accounts, and the interest from those accounts is put into the General budget. I’d love to talk about that with you sometime.

Chad

[Reply]

1. Above comment written by Chad Lupkes on September 11th, 2007 at 11:28 am (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).
When the taxpayers cannot vote on any issue of spending huge amounts of taxpayers money, you can be sure the bottom feeding elected officials involved are getting paid off.

Why wouldn’t the mayor and city council let people vote on the hotel? Why can’t the taxpayers involved in any to be annexed area be allowed to vote on being brought into the city?

These bottom feeders like to think they know what is best for the people, and as long as they can screw us, they keep spouting that line.

I would love to hear one bottom feeder explain, in writing, how retired people, on fixed incomes, can afford higher/more taxes! Anyone want to take odds on that happening?

[Reply]

2. Above comment written by Allen on September 12th, 2007 at 7:36 am (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).