What are you willing to pay for?

There are many considerations that we have to think about before distributing our hard earned money. What creditors do we owe? What bills are due? How much can or will my family need for the next two weeks or month. All kind of important decisions have to be made prior to writing out the checks. However, there are quite a few decisions that are made with our money that we don't regularly have a say in. The one I'm going to address in a round about way are taxes. While we earn the money, quite a bit of it is taken from us before our payroll even prints the check. This can be irritating. Particularly when we don't personally see a benefit. At least, not obvious ones.

One of the obvious ones, if you know where to look is in public safety. That includes most of the public service institutions, waste management, water, road maintenance, food and health inspection, fire / ems, law enforcement / corrections. There are a host of others that I'm more than likely forgetting. Very few would argue that they need the bulk of these services. The garbage has to be picked up. If someone doesn't do it, you notice right away. Water has to be maintained along with waste water treatment. You notice those pretty fast when they aren't done as well. Fire/EMS and LEO/Corrections (ie. jails and prisons) are ones that aren't thought of much. Unless of course something goes wrong.

One of our fellow gamers, microscent, gave the following link. The article relates to the murder of a prison guard by an inmate. An inmate with a lengthy criminal history. This article relates the public reaction to the incident. http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6268695

Public safety costs. It costs money, time and effort. It also requires will, the will of the officers to demand it, the will for the administators to seek it and the will of the councilman making the budget decisions to fund it. The biggest lynch-pin is the will of the councilman. Reason being is because they are going to try and estimate what their constituents would most likely support. This happens with every budget request, garbage or prison.

As I've mentioned before, our governments, whether they are national or more local, have constitutionally granted and defined authority. They also have authority that they've assumed by public mandate. Mostly the mandate comes directly from the constituency. A vocal group makes their wants known and make a big enough stink, or make the needed lobbying moves, to get the elected members of their government to agree with them and seek remedy. The public at large are first and foremost concerned about their own lives in the moment, and why shouln't we? There are a lot of day to day distractions that demand our immediate attention. Important stuff mostly. Those important things cause us stress so we seek diversions to alleviate them. Nothing wrong with that.

When our taxes go up to fund training outside of "the norm" or to get more patrol vehicles or hire more patrolman / guards, we get pissed. When a patrolman / guard gets killed due to reduced manpower, we get pissed but at the wrong people. We should be taking a long hard look in the mirror and directing the anger in the appropriate direction.

Notice how I've stopped using "they" to describe the public in general and have started using "we" instead? There's a very important distinction between the two. Using "they" allows me and you, the reader, to intellectualy alleviate ourselves of the blame. By using "they" it makes it someone elses problem. By using "we" I'm placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of everybody because that's where it belongs. The blame for our governments inadequacies does not solely lie with our elected officials, "they" are simply doing what we expect from them. Like the rest of "us", "they" are human. That means "they" and "we" will follow the path of least resistance when allowed to.

And therein lies the problem.

This entry has taken on a totally different life than I originally intended. I was intending to make an entry based on the one issue. The issue of the public of being too lazy or irresponsible to fund a budget that would have provided the manpower that would have given Sgt. Stephen Anderson the back-up he would have needed to prevent his murder. If that second pair of eyes had been there, the perp more than likely would have chosen to wait until another opportunity for escape presented itself. Sgt Anderson would still be alive and his family would still have their father/ son/ husband/ friend with them.

Sgt Anderson is not known to me personally, but I can relate to him because I am in a similar profession. I'm also a Sergeant. On many occasions i've been alone with an offender while awaiting medical treatment. Some of them have been prone to violence and aggression against officers. The difference between Anderson and myself is that Anderson's killer made a different decision than the people I've been with. A decision a few were more than likely considering.

When you consider the reality of it you will see that he isn't any different from you. He was a living breathing human being, living his life, earning his money, paying his taxes. Now, he's dead because the rest of us didn't pay attention. In short, his death, in some small way, is our fault. While the felon that shot him is directly responsible for pulling the trigger, we assisted him by allowing him the luxury of opportunity.

We have surrendered our own responsibilities into the hands of a few that we hope are looking out for our interests. We pay dues to clubs with PACs (political action committees) who we hope are lobbying for us. Basically, we're supporting the very system of favoritism and pay-offs that we all say we despise. If you aren't, you are worse. You aren't even involved enough in our political process to have a hand in the way it presently exists. You are content to sit back and bitch. Why? Because bitching feels good. It's one of those diversions that alleviates your stress. But, just like spanking it to pornography, bitching is just intellectual masturbation. It may make you feel better but it produces nothing.

Up until recently, I've been just as pathetic. I have been content to sit back and bitch. Sit around in a group and talk about what I see wrong with our society and political system. Don't get me wrong, discussion is a good start, it lays the groundwork for taking action. The next step is to really get involved. I vote but I don't get involved with the election process. I don't take the time to research the possible candidates or the issues they claim to support. That will change. Along with the change in the focus of this entry also comes a change in title. Instead of "What are you willing to pay for?", it should be titled, "What are you willing to DO?"