"HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?" Francis Schaeffer

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Massachusetts VS New Hampshire

Found on Wizbang - viva la difference

One of the more subtle differences between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and I think it's one that is deeply profound.

In Massachusetts, lawmakers just voted themselves another pay raise. They now make, I think, around $50,000 a year. Nearly all of them list "legislator" on their tax returns. Their full-time job is being a lawmaker.

In New Hampshire, our legislators make $100 a year. That's no typo. They earn one hundred dollars a year.

In Massachusetts, the legislators are lawmakers, year round. Therefore, to justify their continued pay, they need to keep making laws. Passing new laws. Revising old laws. And to support their positions that we need all this regulation, they need an ever-expanding state bureaucracy to administer these laws. And to support that bureaucracy, they need more and more money. And to raise that money, they need more and higher taxes.

In New Hampshire, lawmakers tend to be either independently wealthy or retired. Legislating is purely a part-time duty for most of them. And they tend to be very unsympathetic to people asking for more money, when they have to make five Benjamins last 365 days themselves.

JB here! And there's much more. Quite fascinating about Taxachusetts. This is where socialism goes. Consider their senators. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. Was there ever a tax they didn't like? ( Quick answer - NO!)

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