TIME Jockeying for Bailout Money?

h/t to Newsbusters..

Let's see. California has one of the largest tax burdens in the country. Gov't waste is running amok, people are emigrating, and as of July 2nd, we're told it will begin paying its debt with IOU's.

So what on earth can possibly be at the root cause of the mess?

Government ineptitude, fraud, waste, and over-spending?

Nope. According to Kevin O'Leary at TIME, California has apparently been under-taxed thanks to prop 13, which was enacted in 1978.

What is so evil about Prop 13? MUUHAHAHA! Prop 13 caps real estate / property taxes so that homeowners don't pay more than 1% of the cash value of their homes.

Gee, what's happened to home prices again? Oh yeah, they've plummeted while a great many mortgages have gone into default and California has been a hotbed for it. I guess O'Leary's answer would be higher property taxes so homeowners could foreclose sooner.

What's truly astounding is the notion that O'Leary just might actually believe what he wrote. Then again, maybe it just needs to be made more personal for Mr. O'Leary so I thought I'd write him a note that might jog his memory of a time when he learned about economics (assuming such a time ever existed).

Kevin,

You're trying to sell magazines, right? Your market consists of consumers who have a certain level of discretionary income (money left after paying taxes and bills). The more discretionary income one has, the more likely your publication would be appealing to those who have it.

If their taxes are raised, wouldn't they necessarily have LESS discretionary income? So why on earth would you advocate lowering the amount of discretionary income from your target audience? Are you advocating the destruction of TIME?

Following that logic, maybe you're targeting a different demographic. Perhaps you're wanting governments to find your publication appealing so that THEY will budget for a certain number of prescriptions using the taxpayer money you seem to be calling for them to increase.

But what if the government doesn't buy prescriptions? What if, instead, they just set aside some taxpayer dollars to subsidize your ability to keep writing? You'd enjoy that even better, wouldn't you?

Signed,
Ben Barrack

Newsbusters has more on the story..

There are two explanations for why O'Leary might write such dross. 1.) Brainwashed by the same liberal ideology hard-working Americans have been subsidizing for years or 2.) He doesn't believe a lick of it and wants TIME to get some STIMULUS!