“The economy is still substantially that of the fur trade, still based on the same general kinds of commercial items: technology, weapons, ornaments, novelties, and drugs. The one great difference is that by now the revolution has deprived the mass of consumers of any independent access to the staples of life: clothing, shelter, food, even water. Air access remains the only necessity that the average user can still get for himself, and the revolution has imposed a heavy tax on that by way of pollution. Commercial conquest is far more thorough and final than military defeat.” WayKindStillsWaterDifferencesTechnologyEconomyAirMilitaryRevolutionDrugTaxesWeaponsMassIndependentRemainsTradeFinalsDefeatAverageHeavyAccessConsumersClothingsUsersPollutionShelterConsumerismConquestItemsDeprivedNoveltyFurThoroughOrnamentsOverconsumptionStaples Book:The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture Source: The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture
“Quality of life is the sum total of the fairness of our tax structure; the caliber of our homes; the cleanliness of our air and water; and the provision of affirmative assistance to those who cannot assist themselves. True quality is absent if we allow social suffering to abide in an otherwise pristine environment.” IfsHomeLife IsSufferingSocialWaterQualityEnvironmentAirTaxesStructureFairnessAssistanceAbsentQuality Of LifeProvisionCleanlinessAffirmativeOregonCaliberPristineAir And Water Author:Tom McCall
“If you believe Jesus ever had a good word for war or torture or tax cuts for the rich, or raping the earth, or refusing water to dying migrants, then you might as well believe bunnies lay painted eggs.” IfsBelieveWellsWarMightEarthJesusWaterRichCuttingDyingTaxesLaysTortureEggsIf You BelieveTax CutsBunniesMigrantsGood Words Author:Bill Maher
“we'll have to reclaim the ward 'taxes.' Why has it become a synonym for 'evil'? I understand that no one likes to pay good money for nothing. But fire and police protection aren't nothing. ... Roads, bridges, airports, and mass transit systems aren't nothing. National parks, clean air, and clear water aren't nothing. A safe food supply, functioning schools with well-trained teachers, and well-equipped hospitals aren't vaporous apparitions either.” WellsSchoolEvilWaterPayClearFireTeacherAirSafeTaxesMassPoliceCleanProtectionLikesBridgesParksHospitalsAirportsNational ParksSynonymGood MoneyApparitionsClean AirFood SupplyClear WaterPolice ProtectionMass TransitSafe Food Author:Arianna Huffington
“My taxes alone keep eight lawyers busy, and when I finally get my money, its only one-third of what I earn. With the kids in school and my other responsibilities, I get no change back from the first million dollars. The money flows out like water.” FirstsKidsSchoolWaterResponsibilityMillionsTaxesFlowThirdsDollarsBusyEightLawyerMillion Dollars Author:Robert Shaw
“Tax reduction has an almost irresistible appeal to the politician, and it is no doubt also gratifying to the citizen. It means more dollars in his pocket, dollars that he can spend if inflation doesn't consume them first. But dollars in his pocket won't buy him clean streets or an adequate police force or good schools or clean air and water. Handing money back to the private sector in tax cuts and starving the public sector is a formula for producing richer and richer consumers in filthier and filthier communities. If we stick to that formula we shall end up in affluent misery.” IfsFirstsMeanEndsSchoolForceWaterCommunityDoubtCuttingAirStreetsCitizensPoliticianTaxesPoliceDollarsMiseryCleanSticksAppealsConsumersNo DoubtPocketsFormulasAdequateInflationStarvingIrresistibleReductionPrivate SectorTax CutsAffluentPolice ForcePublic SectorClean AirGood SchoolAir And Water Book:The Recovery of Confidence Source: The Recovery of Confidence
“I regard the state of which I am a citizen as a public utility, like the organization that supplies me with water, gas, and electricity. I feel that it is my civic duty to pay my taxes as well as my other bills, and that it is my moral duty to make an honest declaration of my income to the income tax authorities. But I do not feel that I and my fellow citizens have a religious duty to sacrifice our lives in war on behalf of our own state, and, a fortiori, I do not feel that we have an obligation or a right to kill and maim citizens of other states or to devastate their land.” FeelsWellsWarStatesWaterReligiousPayMoralOur LivesSacrificeLandHonestDutyCitizensTaxesAuthorityOrganizationRegardFellowsBillsIncomeObligationGasElectricityDeclarationBehalfUtilityCivicsSuppliesIncome TaxCivic DutyMoral Duty Author:Arnold J. Toynbee
“The procedure has a strange Alice-in-Wonderland quality. The reservoir was created as a public water supply, yet the community, probably unconsulted about the sportsmen's project, is forced either to drink water containing poisonous residues or to pay our tax money for treatment of the water to remove the poisons - treatments that are by no means foolproof.” MeanWaterCommunityPayQualityStrangeDrinkTaxesProjectsEnvironmentalPoisonTreatmentRemoveProceduresPoisonousWonderlandContainingReservoirsDrink WaterSportsmanSilent SpringFoolproof Author:Rachel Carson
“We can decide that the presence of cancer-causing substances in our air, water, and food is too expensive. A 2009 study, for example, has found that coal miners in Appalachia costs the region five times more in premature deaths, including from cancer, than it provides to the region in jobs, taxes, and economic benefits. In California, the production and use of hazardous chemicals cost the state $2.6 billion in 2004 alone in lost wages and health-care expenses to treat workers and children with pollution-linked diseases.” ChildrenStatesUseCareJobsFoundLostWaterStudyFiveAirEconomicExampleCostTaxesDiseaseBenefitsTreatsEnvironmentalWorkersIncludingCancerProductionsBillionsHealth CareSubstanceCaliforniaExpensiveRegionsExpensesChemicalsPollutionWagesCoalLinkedPrematureMinersAppalachiaCoal MinersPremature Death Author:Sandra Steingraber