Ned had the misfortune to read his local paper Wednesday while waiting for his shift to begin, working at his local co-op. On the front page was a report on the city crisis du jour, a "lack of money" for the schools, etc.
Featured in the story was the sad tale of the school district's "theater manager", whose responsibility is apparently to oversee the $8 million theater complex built for the two local high schools some years ago, using, of course, an increase in property taxes to pay for it. Now, leave aside the fact that many local students are deficient in math and science, and may of them can't string together a coherent sentence. The crisis deals with how to maintain the "theater manager's" salary. Now, this individual is apparently a thirty-something woman who reportedly "left her own business" to take the position. Ned would like his friends to guess this person's salary, and then add ten grand to their estimate. The correct answer: $96,000. Ninety-six thousand dollars a year, in a community where young people cannot find jobs, where Vietnam vets live under overpasses and collect cans and bottles for cheap wine, and where property taxes go up year after year, even in years when property values go down (Ned is not making this up). Now, Ned's friends may suspect that many of his local citizen friends are becoming irate at the exorbitant salaries paid to city and state workers, in the face of economic hardship so many are facing, the loss of 401ks, health care, and pensions when workers are laid off by Sneering Plutocrats, and the like.
Up to now, Ned has refused to join the parade, seeking to avoid the trap the Plutocrats have laid for us by demonizing government workers, to take our sights off the real issue which is low taxes for the Sneering Plutocracy and the Paris Hilton crowd.
But now he is not so sure...
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