[pinnah]

Gonzo would never text

"Going Green"....definitely a trendy marketing tool of late.
Hopefully the idea
will survive the exploitation.

Feel free to head to the developing world
and check the flutter of said plastic bags

me,
I am heading for the Peoples Forest
devoid of human dregs
thanks to your tax dollars.

[beerocd]

Everything doesn't have to be about "what's in it for me".

My original complaint wasn't so much that there wasn't anything in it for me, there's too much in it for the profiteers. Organic, conservation, reducing pollution, recycling etc are all great ideas that big companies distort and diminish in the name of $$$.

[a10t2]

But this is america and if I want to drive a 1971 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado  with a beer in one hand while texting on my cell thats my right as an american.

For what it's worth I agree with that statement 100%. I also agree that the converse is true - it's defensible and, dare I say, logical for governments to maintain roads with gasoline taxes. The fact that we fund damn near everything with income taxes instead of usage taxes makes no sense to me.

Now I've blatantly crossed the line into politics and I'm sorry if I'm the one who gets y'alls thread locked.

[joelambic]

What about the hotels, and their bedding and towel policies? They don't swap bedding during your stay unless you specifically request it, and towels you should reuse. It saves millions of dollars, causes less pollution, and uses less fossil fuels, etc.

In my experience, with the exception of bedding at some extended stay hotels I use when work sends me places, every hotel I've stayed at has swapped towels (and often bedding) even if they tout the reuse towels/bedding policy.

[a10t2]

As for a road usage tax, what I have a problem with is that we pay income taxes to support roads, so why are they building toll roads everywhere? Are we eventually going to pay for them twice?

I see you're from Texas, so you have income and sales taxes and pay for just about everything twice anyway.

[rabid_dingo]

Could the store, (or any store for that matter) save the "hassle" of  having to charge for giving
something away by simply imposing their own "Bring your own bags in policy". "We are no
longer providing bags!"  How much money would the store save by not buying the bags to
distribute any how. Forgot your bags? Damn shame... looks like we'll pile your groceries
in the basket as you brought them up to the cashier and you can pile them in your trunk
the same way....

I know I will open a can of worms, but there is some, however minute, cost to the company
when they begin to charge for previously "Free" items. I know that this is a tax, but I
can see how the stores could start to charge for the bags if the stores are the ones being
taxed for the bags (it could happen). (oh, and even if minute it adds up over time.)

[long winded airline rant about bag fees goes here]

I for one do what I can to make sure I don't get charged for bags. I have used my own bags for
about 3 years now...

I don't like how so many solutions out there would "cost too much" or would hurt the bottom line...

[dean]

I agree with all of you in varying aspects of this "going green thing".  I think 95% of it is about the money, lining some peoples pockets with it and not the environment.  Its like the commercials for the HSUS showing all the sad looking dogs and cats, it really pee's me off because its about lining an organizations pocketbook more than the animals but sad looking pictures of animals prompts just about anybody to donate.  Yeh I agree animals get mistreated but not as drastically as they portray it.  In fact when they (Congress and PETA) passed a law changing the status of horses from livestock to pets it actually caused more suffering.  But thats another subject as well as political I guess (?) so I'll get off it.   

I think a deposit ought to be put on plastic bags, not another tax.  With a tax you pay it and still throw the damn thing away whereas with a deposit you're more likely to save it and return it for recycling whether that be used again and not have to pay an addtional deposit on new bags or you give it to the store when its torn needing to be melted down and recycled into new bags.  Either way you'd either get your deposit back or fore-go paying another deposit, not to mention there would be a LOT of people out cleaning up bags off the roads, streets, parking lots, etc.     THAT is going green imo... not taxing the shyt out of shoppers so they can spend less on actual products.     But taxes line the governments pocket so they can spend more, hire more "government workers".  Who is the largest employer in the USA... our government, which produces absolutely Nothing other than more taxes so they can hire more workers so they can tax more so they can....

[capozzoli]

As for a road usage tax, what I have a problem with is that we pay income taxes to support roads, so why are they building toll roads everywhere? Are we eventually going to pay for them twice?

I see you're from Texas, so you have income and sales taxes and pay for just about everything twice anyway.

We have a sales tax, but not state income tax. Of course we pay federal income tax, so yeah we pay twice or with toll roads, 3 times. Actually, with gas tax it's 4 times. This is getting depressing.

Oh man you guys have it made.

I pay federal tax, state tax, city income tax in the town I live in, city wage tax in the city I work in, business privilege tax cause I own the business, then there is sales tax on goods I buy for myself family and property tax. I have it figured out that all in all I pay about sixty percent or more of my income in taxes. What exactly do I get for that?

I realize a civilized society needs taxes but man it is way out of hand.

[dean]

I pay federal tax, state tax, city income tax in the town I live in, city wage tax in the city I work in, business privilege tax cause I own the business, then there is sales tax on goods I buy for myself family and property tax. I have it figured out that all in all I pay about sixty percent or more of my income in taxes. What exactly do I get for that?

I realize a civilized society needs taxes but man it is way out of hand.

What... you don't pay school income tax?  Now there is a ballbreaker... they collect it in addition to the school taxes already in your property taxes.  People will vote everyone deeper and deeper into a hole or The Hole maybe is more correct.  But wait... we're getting off topic... "sort of".  Maybe not when you consider how schools play such an important part in brainwashing children into pandering politics to parents at home.  Its amazing just how much power schools and teachers actually have in everyday life of everyday Americans.  You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.   

[bonjour]

Some things in this thread seem to be getting a bit heated.  Can we tone it down a bit before it gets out of control..

Thanks
Fred

[capozzoli]

I dont know about all of this tax BS. But I do know this. Queen aint got nothin on the Muppets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY

[beerocd]

Some things in this thread seem to be getting a bit heated.  Can we tone it down a bit before it gets out of control..

Thanks
Fred

None of it is between members. I think even you could say everyone is passionately AGREEING.
I think the conversation has been very PG so far (I mean c'mon there's MUPPETS in the thread!).

[boulderbrewer]

Capp sounds like you live in WisconSin but you get none of the benifits like the weather!

[beerocd]

Capp sounds like you live in WisconSin but you get none of the benifits like the weather!

Weather? I always think more Beer and Cheese when I think of Wisconsin.
Spotted Cow and a tub of Cheese... 

[boulderbrewer]

LOL, near the UP it is more weather!