I have found a gold mine and it's not in the hills. It's on the hill, Capitol Hill, that is. To unearth this prolific mother lode, I need to form a company. Most importantly, one that researches problems in public transportation (or buildings, or schools, or whatever) and always cites "monetary deficiency" as the root cause. Then--poof!--the Powers That Be will shower me with riches. Gold strike!
Recently, such a firm teamed up with my state to find out that--now this will be a shocker--traffic and poor infrastructure are costing taxpayers thousands annually, and more revenue is direly needed to reinforce and maintain a decaying system, including bridges that do not. even. meet. code. whoa...
No good sleight of hand is worth its weight in gold without an accessory, though. Thank God for the Mainstream Media. They lap up studies and research reports like kittens' milk. The media will state or print the press release verbatim and pull in suckers (their audience) with a sensational teaser or headline. The public is aghast! The public is outraged! Children will die unless we do something!
Smooth as silk, the politicians move in to fix the problem, only...oh, darn-it, there's no more money in the coffers. We want to save your babies, we really do, but there's not a dime left. If only there were some way, some obscure way we could help solve this calamity, we would. Hey, wait a minute! We know you're not going to like this, and it's an election year, but safety transcends politics, you know. We're left with no other option. We coooooould raise taxes, just a little, to save children's lives.
And, they swindle the public into believing that the only viable solution to any problem is a tax hike. And, we keep buying their load of pigs' droppings.
Politicians use these reports to gin up support for tax increases so they don't have to do the hard work of budgeting. They'll pay these research firms big bucks to keep their jobs easy.
I've got to join this gold rush!
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