A cautionary tale from my locality, illustrating a principle that even fairly intelligent people often fail to grasp:—

Here in Seattle we have a gink by the name of Tim Eyman. He keeps putting forth voter initiatives limiting the city, county, and state governments' ability to levy taxes, and rolling back taxes that already exist. Since it saves them a nickel here and a dime there, the voters keep voting for Eyman's initiatives. For example, one of his first initiatives rolled back the annual automobile license tab fees from the $30.00 registration fee plus an excise tax based on the blue-book value of the automobile. Now it's a $30.00 registration fee and no excise tax. The excise tax, plus some gasoline taxes, paid for street and highway maintenance and subsidized the Puget Sound ferry system. Many commuters who work in Seattle but live in Bremerton or on Bainbridge or Vashon Islands depend on the ferry system to get to work every day. They voted for it. Then—they squeal like scalded pigs when the pot-holes don't get fixed and the ferry fares have to go up thirty or forty percent just to keep the boats running. But Eyman keeps putting forth initiatives cutting taxes and the voters keep voting for them. Every time one passes, more services get cut (e.g. the Seattle Public Library has had to lay off a bunch of people and reduce it's hours). Fire Department. Police Department. You name it, they're all taking a hit.

What happens on the local level also happens on the national level. Cut taxes and you also cut services. The people this hits the hardest are the people who can least afford it.

The Law of Cause and Effect seems to escape a lot of people.

Don Firth