Chapter 45

High speed cop car chases, are they worth it?

With the evolution of communication technology I wonder the value of high speed police pursuits. It seems that by using police band radio and cell phones most of these chases could be avoided and still result in apprehension. My primary concern is with the unnecessary deaths that have resulted from this activity.

The following is taken from and August 2015 article in USA today:

During the 24 year period from 1979 to 2013 there were almost 12,000 fatalities resulting from high speed chases by police vehicles. Of these 6,301 were the deaths of those being pursued (in at least one case for running a red light and in another for failure to turn on head lights), 5,066 were of innocent bystanders or other non-violators in vehicles and 139 were police officers.

Another consideration is the need for high powered police cruisers. We might need to consider lower powered and more fuel efficient vehicles and replace the high speed chase with efficient communications among law enforcement? It is interesting to note that most European countries utilize small economy units as police vehicles. Despite what we see in Hollywood’s chase scenes most of these vehicles are not chase capable.

Chapter 44

America , the world’s cop                                                                                            

I strongly favor our ability to provide a national defense but, there are at least three points that concern me regarding this issue: 1. Our intrusion into any other countries’ civil affairs. One wonders how we would feel if another country decided that they needed to invade our borders because they deemed that we were not treating a segment of our citizens fairly or in an inhumane manner. 2. Putting our boys and girls in harm’s way, resulting in the deaths of many. In addition to the death toll we need to recognize the high cost of rehabilitation of those who have been wounded both physically and psychologically. 3. The cost to the tax payer and the impact it has on the budget deficit.

Our intrusion into other countries: The valid argument here is that people are being killed for what we determine are good reasons. It is unfortunate that there are still evil rulers that see fear and murder as a valid weapon to secure and retain power. We all hope for a world where this is not the case. How and where do we draw the line on intrusion into another country’s affairs? Will our intrusion insure that the next ruler will be an improvement? Will our intrusion prevent it from happening again in another (or the same) country?

Killing and maiming our boys and girls:  In Iraq there have been 4,419 deaths, and in Afghanistan – 3,347. The wounded represent more than 5 times these numbers. According to the U.S. State Department, the number of U.S. citizens killed overseas as a result of incidents of terrorism from 2001 to 2013 was 350.                                                                                                                                                          Using numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we found that from 2001 to 2013, 406,496 people died by firearms on U.S. soil. (2013 is the most recent year CDC data for deaths by firearms is available.) This data covered all manners of death, including homicide, accident and suicide, with suicide representing approximately 2/3rds of the total deaths by gun and extremely few in defense of home and property.

The cost to the tax payer:

The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans and expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest. The war in Afghanistan has cost the United States nearly $1.2 trillion — or $1.172 trillion, to be exact — since its inception in 2001 through July 31, 2012, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

Chapter 41

Do I really have to pay for this?

Have you noticed the plethora of TV commercials that encourage you to allow their company to assist you in not paying income tax that you owe? They gleefully display lists of people who owe large amounts, but who only ended up paying a small fraction of what they owed (they do not tell you what the fee was for each of these transactions!).

I am not a fan of the IRS or the current status of our income tax system. There is an extensive discussion of this topic in an earlier blog posting along with proposed solutions. What ticks me off is that over 95% of tax payers faithfully pay their tax liability whether they agree with the system or not. These folks subsidize the folks who manage to weasel out of what they owe and an entire industry, complete with TV advertising funds, has risen up to assist them in screwing you and I. It is both disgusting and legal.

To make matters worse, the group that is taking advantage of this situation are folks that exist the in the upper 10% income group. With very few exceptions the middle class is subsidizing the wealthiest segment of society.

All that considered, I suspect that what we see on TV are a small minority of the outcomes and many are situations where large past incomes have not continued and the IRS considers the debt largely uncollectable. In this regard, these firms are using these rare examples to attract commissions from folks with large tax bills who would like to avoid the tax.

If I was relocating from another country to the USA and saw this occurring it would cause me to suspect both corruption and a lack of ethics. I wonder if this is the way we want our country to be viewed?