the people got robbed
now are expected to pay
where are the ceo's money
that we gave them the other day

we are suckers
stupid mother f....ers

Great! Those were socialist lights anyway. Anybody could see using them. Real Americans™ use lights only they can see and don't let other people steal their hard-earned photons.

"We've taken all the trash cans out. We're not going to be doing any litter collections in the parks," says Larry Small, vice mayor for Colorado Springs. "We're hoping the citizens will pack it out themselves."

Bwaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahah!

Lazy-ass, disposable-society Americans picking up after themselves? We are a society that circles the parking lot for 30 minutes to find the parking spot closest to the store so our fat asses don't have to walk to far.

That's rich!

Good. Too many damn streetlights anyway.

All the better to see the stars.

CtrlAltDelete: All the better to see the stars.

Please. Like Colorado Springs residents want to see the stars. They're probably afraid they'll turn their kids into scientists or something.

Heh, it is a small scale version of when the Republicans were in the White House. Don't raise taxes, don't cut services, run up huge debts. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? But when it isn't on a national scale, you can't keep a giant deficit, you just are forced to cut services. Would have been nice if someone forced Bush II and Reagan to do that. The national debt would be billions lower if that happened. Maybe now these bootstrappy idiots will realize that if you want the services, you have to farking pay for them.

We saw this coming a couple of weeks ago (Sorry, redlit; TF only). The city was stretched too thin because of the decline in sales tax revenue, so they proposed a property tax increase. The populace thought that was too socialistic for them, and so the city cut spending.

The small-government people will scream that there's so much fat in the budget these cuts were just a scare tactic, but it's a problem on the local and national level. We turned tax increases into such an albatross that we can't use a legitimate function of government anymore. There are times when tax increases are necessary in every level of government.

CtrlAltDelete: All the better to see the stars.

Exactly. I wish they would turn out the lights in my neighborhood.

When bootstrappy kid gets run over in the dark by bootstrappy neighbor, bootstrappy parents will sue the city.

GAT_00: Heh, it is a small scale version of when the Republicans were in the White House. Don't raise taxes, don't cut services, run up huge debts. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? But when it isn't on a national scale, you can't keep a giant deficit, you just are forced to cut services. Would have been nice if someone forced Bush II and Reagan to do that. The national debt would be billions lower if that happened. Maybe now these bootstrappy idiots will realize that if you want the services, you have to farking pay for them.

no, they won't. Around here most of them live with their parents anyway, so the concept of actually getting by is foreign to them.

"Seems like the city ... is over-paying its workers," Shirlee Kelley says. "I think the salaries have to come down to be more even with what the private sector is paying."

Seems like someone has been reading the GOP talking points.

I don't mind them testing their ideas in Colorado Springs. Better that than the whole country. I'm sure it will be pure fail, just as long as they acknowledge it if it does fail*.

/*which I doubt

FlyingLizardOfDoom: One guy quoted in the article had a point. There is no reason why government workers should be paid so much more than private sector workers performing nearly the same function. One of the biggest problems cities/municipalities/states have in keeping their budjets in line is those damned public employees unions.

Absoutely! We need more private employee unions to level the field!

A few hundred billion here, a couple trillion there... Bit*ch, please.

It's all debt, it's all IOUs in intaglio, it's all meaningless.

It's Monopoly money. We just scribble more zeros on it and act like every bit of actual wealth hasn't been funneled out of the country already.

It's time to shake the Etch a Sketch. Time for jubilee. Or we can just keep pretending that nobody will ever call us on our fake economy and fake currency that we use to prop it up.

FlyingLizardOfDoom: budget, freaking grammer nazi's.

Yeah, because why should adults have to use 4th grade spelling words in order to be taken seriously?

gaslight: Did Christianity cause the crash? An article in December's Atlantic Monthly.

More than the anti-intellectualism, more than the racism, more than the warmongering, I despise the Prosperity Doctrine with every fiber of my being. It is such a twisted corruption of Christianity and completely goes against the core of what Jesus was teaching.

I'm not religious in any sense, though I can respect people like the Amish and Quakers. But how can White Republican Jeezus Worshippers reconcile their doctrine with "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."?

I said that wrong. It wouldn't be billions lower. It would be trillions lower. Hell, the Bush tax cuts alone were responsible for $4T.

UNC_Samurai: The small-government people will scream that there's so much fat in the budget these cuts were just a scare tactic, but it's a problem on the local and national level. We turned tax increases into such an albatross that we can't use a legitimate function of government anymore. There are times when tax increases are necessary in every level of government.

Pretty much. There's one guy in TFA complaining already:

"Small argues wages are comparable to other municipalities. But that doesn't satisfy critics, who don't like the cuts the city is choosing to make.

"The government is using its typical tactic of making highly-publicized cuts in order to make people feel the pain to some extent," says Douglas Bruce, a small government activist and author of Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights."

It's always "cut the fat! cut the fat!" but when the cuts happen and they realize it's services they actually want, they wail about that. They seem to think there's always some endless waste going on just around the bend, it's craziness.

FlyingLizardOfDoom: There is no reason why government workers should be paid so much more than private sector workers performing nearly the same function.

Government workers have what EVERYONE had until a little while ago. But what people fail to recognize often is, when the economy is growing like crazy and private sector workers are getting bonanza raises, public sector workers don't get those raises even in good times. They've made a trade-off, slightly less gains in good times, in exchange for security.

But sure, now it's bad enough that lots of places are requiring pay cuts, furloughs, etc. in the public sector even.

But the woman in TFA, you know if she were only willing to work for Chinese level wages her firm would be a lot more profitable. Why won't she do that? Or heck, if she wanted the sweet, sweet public sector money, why didn't she take a public sector job?

FlyingLizardOfDoom: One guy quoted in the article had a point. There is no reason why government workers should be paid so much more than private sector workers performing nearly the same function.

Conservative spin is to only talk about average salaries between government and private. Which is different because the government tends to employ more educated people. It's important to understand that a big reason for the disparity is the different mix of jobs in the government work force. It has more higher-paying white-collar jobs, while there are more lower-paying, blue-collar jobs in the private sector that bring the average down. So it is not an apples-to-apples comparison.

itazurakko: Government workers have what EVERYONE had until a little while ago. But what people fail to recognize often is, when the economy is growing like crazy and private sector workers are getting bonanza raises, public sector workers don't get those raises even in good times. They've made a trade-off, slightly less gains in good times, in exchange for security.

It also doesn't help the private sector when fiscal neo-conservatism means eroding the middle class. The real purchasing power of the average income has been crippled in the last ten years; I want a public sector job because of the aforementioned security.

And I wonder who's gonna be the first to biatch when the parks get all littered up and tagged and crimey?

But I'm sure they'll just blame it on immigrants or something.

itazurakko: "The government is using its typical tactic of making highly-publicized cuts in order to make people feel the pain to some extent," says Douglas Bruce, a small government activist and author of Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights."

It's always "cut the fat! cut the fat!" but when the cuts happen and they realize it's services they actually want, they wail about that. They seem to think there's always some endless waste going on just around the bend, it's craziness.

You notice he isn't offering what should be cut either. Just like a small government conservative. Big ideas that don't work, and whining when they get what they want.

GAT_00: I said that wrong. It wouldn't be billions lower. It would be trillions lower. Hell, the Bush tax cuts alone were responsible for $4T.

nuh uh, all debt was only on cause of Clinton and Obama. I know that cause I listen to Fark conservatives.

GAT_00: You notice he isn't offering what should be cut either. Just like a small government conservative. Big ideas that don't work, and whining when they get what they want.

They NEVER do. Pointing that out can lead to some interesting discussions, but also froth.

Basically it's a case of "well, I don't want to pay any money for THOSE PEOPLE." It's always someone else who's living too high on the hog, lazy, or wanting some frivolous program that no reasonable person needs.

But crunch numbers? Never will you see anyone willing to do that, because it forces them to admit that they can't just fix the budget off of other people with this nebulous "cut the fat" bullshiat.

In a way it's EXACTLY like certain dieters - oh, they want to just cut back a little. But they won't write down just what they eat, or actually LOOK at the calories for the burger posted on the wall of the McDonald's, because their own system relies on a sort of willful denial of exactly what numbers are going in and out, a fuzzy underestimating.

So it goes with the "just cut the fat! Belt tightening!" people. Endlessly they say "well, when a family is poor they quit eating out and cancel cable" without ever thinking in the family analogy, many places are far beyond that stage, they're eating beans and rice already - and in a family, what does Dad do then?

He gets another job, that's what. I.e., increases the family revenue.

FlyingLizardOfDoom: If everyone who worked at my store voted to form a union and close the shop, that is exactly what I'd have to do, close the shop. There is something farking wrong with that picture.

Why? It's not in their interest to close the shop, they'd lose their jobs. That's the point of negotiation, both sides have desires that work best somewhere in the middle.

From the worker's POV, they might ask why is it that the company gets to act in unison, have one voice? Why can't they play one manager against another in negotiations? Why should each of them always have to be one lone guy facing an entire army? Or forced to compete against each other in a race to the bottom?

GAT_00: itazurakko: "The government is using its typical tactic of making highly-publicized cuts in order to make people feel the pain to some extent," says Douglas Bruce, a small government activist and author of Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights."

It's always "cut the fat! cut the fat!" but when the cuts happen and they realize it's services they actually want, they wail about that. They seem to think there's always some endless waste going on just around the bend, it's craziness.

You notice he isn't offering what should be cut either. Just like a small government conservative. Big ideas that don't work, and whining when they get what they want.

MAKE CUTS! Just not here. And don't take money away from that either. And don't you dare stop spending there! BUT CUT MY TAXES WHARGARBLE UIOY@OU$@*$&(@*&(@*$!!!

Seriously though, someone was cutting the grass weekly in the parks? How snooty are they?

Recoil Therapy: What is a city like CS doing with three helicopters in the first place? One I can see being justified, but three?

Usually in the bootstrappier places, the one thing it's always A-OK to spend money on (until the financial shiat truly hits the fan, that is) is toys for the police department.

Though some of that stuff probably came down or was won in various one-off grants and what not too, so now they're selling it off as they realize that yeah, they don't need three.

Households are having to cut back its nice to see a government entity be able to do the same for once.

FlashHarry: Tyee: Households are having to cut back its nice to see a government entity be able to do the same for once.

and it'll be awesome when they try to attract new businesses and their city parks are brown and dead and the crime rate is soaring because a lack of police and adequate lighting.

those problems are the fault of libs.

LordZorch: Is "bootstrappy" the latest libtard insult? Pretty farking lame...

Call it a shorthand, if it's easier.