Oh, and the fact whether all of 48K went to welfare...
Where else could it go ?
Education - Public Schools were so underfunded that everyone earning over 50K was forced to pay donations every semister. College and university : Everyone with income of over 50K was ineligible for free or subsidised education. Even the HECS - an educational loan from govt was unavailable to me for my MBA...
Infrastructure : The roads - well everyone paid the "bridge toll" to cross the bridges which were built 100s of years ago....I assume they charged us for maintenance.....???
Charity was so active that everday there would be at least 10 people at my doorstep for Cancer Research, Child Welfare, Home for the Aged...and I did do my bit (I'm not a very bad person at heart), but then, that left me wondering where in the world that 48K went ????
Medicare - yes that was great, but I paid an extra 2% in taxes over and above 50%, and besides, over 50K in salary and you were ineligible for a lot of things....so I paid for the insurance too...!!!
I think I was ineligible for most things my neighbor was eligible for !!!! So in essence, I *paid* for his services as well as mine...!
I tell you, it was perfect communism there...!!!! And since 99% of people were supported by 1% of the people, they kept voting the govt back into power....
I loved the place, so I stuck around for 5 years. Eventually, I and my friends gave up.... |
