The Absurd Report

The American Revolution gave birth and was fought for one basic reason, taxes imposed by the King of England on the colonies in America.

In a capitalistic society competition controls pricing, where there is no competition, it is buyer beware. Where you have a one party system, it is a given that the taxpayer is going to get screwed and tattooed.

Such is the case where the one party system has evolved into a Monarchy ruled by a King who humbly declares himself as “Mayor for Life.” The seat of this Kingdom is Chicago and his Capitol is surrounded by a vast wasteland known as Cook County, Illinois.

Cook County is an accumulation of Chicago Area suburbs with a population of 5,303,683 out of 12,763,371 Illinois residents. So you can see, as Cook County goes, so goes the State of Illinois. Source: United States Census Bureau

William B. Ogden was elected the city’s first mayor in 1837 and Richard M. Daley is the 45th Mayor of Chicago, first elected in 1989 and is in his fifth term.

You have to go back to 1915 to find the last Republican Mayor of Chicago; William Hale Thompson who was the 33rd Mayor of Chicago. Since that time each and every Mayor has been a Democrat.

Source: Chicago Public Library provides a complete list of past Mayors.

The point of this brief history lesson, the Chicago-Cook County enclave has been under a one party rule for almost a century without any competition and accountability has no meaning. And as time as gone by the ruling party has taken their positions of power for granted to such an extent that spending and taxation has become so far out of control it is turning the people of a blue State blue and gasping for air.

The City of Chicago, the County of Cook and the State of Illinois have implemented enough taxes on a gallon of gasoline to make this area rank number one in the nation for sticking it to the people. Source: Illinois Petroleum Council. Which provides a detail list of the taxes on a gallon of gas here.

Add to that the fact that real estate taxes are increasing by record amounts (about 20% on new homes this past year). This along with businesses (Down 7.7%) fleeing for a more friendly environment the tax base is declining which will signal increase taxes in the future. Source: United States Census Bureau

Just recently the Chicago City council passed an ordinance aimed at Wal-Mart dictating that the minimum wage should be $10/hour plus $3/hour in fringe benefits. To which Wal-Mart immediately responded that they where cancelling five new projects in the city. How much tax revenue and jobs where lost with this brillant move?

When King Richard II was recently asked about the possibility of cutting expenses in the budget, he announced there was no room for any cuts.

In the meantime, I have noticed a serve decline in State and County related agencies to process the necessary paperwork and permits, adding untold amount of time lost to businesses to proceed ahead with projects. The stock answer has been staffs have been cut because of budget problems. So the cycle of more money is needed will continue on.

What is the remedy for all of this? None that I can see until the dumb bastards who keep reelecting these people to office by 70% to 80% pluralities wakeup and realize that their bones are getting picked clean.

I apologize to one and all for my use of vulgarity in this article but sometimes the use of such words emphasizes the point. And since many of these dumb bastards are friends and neighbors of mine, I poise the following question. Since I have chosen to live my entire life in this area, what does that make me?

Thus, are the Benefits of a One Party System.

Big Box Rebellion

Well, that didn’t take long. Just as Mayor Richard Daley and these columns predicted, the law recently passed by Chicago’s City Council requiring a super-minimum wage is driving big retailers out of the city.

Target was the first big chain to react, recently cancelling plans to open a new superstore in a run-down area on the city’s North side. Only a few months ago the project was hailed by city leaders as an anchor for redeveloping that depressed neighborhood. Now it gets to stay depressed. Wal-Mart has also announced that its plans to build 20 new stores in the city over the next five years are “on hold” until the wage issue is resolved.

This isn’t what the politicians said would happen when they mandated that certain mostly non-union “big-box” retailers pay a minimum of $13 in wage and health benefits by 2010, or more than two-and-a-half times the national minimum wage. “This is a great day for working men and women of Chicago,” said Alderman Joseph Moore, who sponsored the ordinance but clearly doesn’t think very far ahead, if he thinks at all. The Council was warned that stores would flee to the suburbs or not be built. But instead it heeded such activists as Annette Bernhardt, chief economist at New York University Law School, who claimed that “We’re very confident that retailers want and need to be in Chicago.” Whoops.

This liberal red-lining may yet be overcome by common sense. Mayor Daley seems intent on vetoing the bill, which he says would result in higher property taxes to compensate for lost sales-tax revenue once stores leave. Alderman Shirley Coleman voted for the law but has since changed her mind now that a Wal-Mart in her district may never be built. At least three other aldermen who voted for the measure are also reportedly now open to giving Mr. Daley the votes he needs to sustain his veto.

The entire “living-wage” movement is the latest product of upper-income politicians who want to stick it to non-union companies in the name of helping the poor. But the working poor lose twice in Chicago: first, in lost retail jobs and then in less access to low-cost goods. Alderman Carrie Austin, who represents the area where the Target store was supposed to locate, puts it this way: “My colleagues are saying, ‘Don’t worry they [the big box retailers] will come.’ Well, mine just left.”

Source: WSJ.com