Comments for Rob Chipman.com

Comment on Translink and Taxes by Stephen Rees

Stephen Rees — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:30:36 +0000

And, by the way, I am not the only person who thinks like this. My friend Arzeena puts it very nicely in her column in the Richmond Review. "Thank your lucky stars for taxes"

Comment on Translink and Taxes by Stephen Rees

Stephen Rees — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:02:01 +0000

If you think that the present system “developed organically” then I am not sure we can have a discussion at all. I think you need to understand the political and economic history of the last sixty years or so. Most importantly how a society that was at one time concerned with issues such as social justice and environmental conservation was replaced by one that simply reveres money. The neo-conservative revolution – the assertion that “there is no such thing as society” – and the substitution of private sector profit for all other values is fundamentally unsustainable.

Your questions are intended to be provocative but are pointless. Why not ask where the rich gained their wealth? How did they come to secure so much of the world’s resources? And why are they so convinced that they do not have to share the wealth?

Why do we no longer value community? How is it that so many conservatives also profess to be Christians but seem not to understand the fundamental values of that belief system?

What you need to understand is that the current capitalist system has failed – just as the socialist system failed. What we are currently witnessing is rather like watching looney tunes. Wiley Coyote has run off the cliff, but even through there is no ground beneath his feet, his forward motion continues, his feet still running on thin air. Until he looks down.

Comment on Occupy Grandview Park by dorrie

dorrie — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 02:38:06 +0000

same as eva above, … and anyway, what does the working class neighbourhood of grandview woodlands have to do with anything like “Wall Street” about which “occupy” originally was all about…if you can’t “occupy” the financial district then Occupy a working class neighbourhood park? i don’t think so…

Comment on Occupy Grandview Park by eva

eva — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:11:04 +0000

yea! for East Van for throwing these people out of their park! The fact that the “occupiers” would assume, puffed up with hubris as they are, that they can just move into and camp in this park shows they have no clue whatsoever as to what is going on with the working class. East Vancouver, Grandview woodlands especially, is historically solidly working class (for example, my great grandparents settle there in 1910) these campers presume to speak for the working class, while never even appreciating the labour of the people who made their tents, built the parks and squares, designed and built their donated generators, built their bicylces, mined the ores to make their stuff, etc etc etc…Bravo, East Vancouver, show your true working class mettle…why should these spoiled privileged children get to camp out for free with their “holier than thou” critique of society! People of Grandview Woodlands waited a year for the renovation of their park…now that the children and retired workers and families have their park back, a bunch of hubris-engorged “protesters” move in and they (the occupiers) don’t even have a CLUE why the people of the neighbourhood don’t want a campground in their neighbourhood! Ha! this is “leadership”? where the biggest news crisis is two drug overdoses, one of them fatal? Concept of “Occupy” is irresponsible. Where’s the leadership? What to do? Eh?

Comment on Do We Need More Bike Lanes Or Do We Have Enough? by Rob

Rob — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 03:10:42 +0000

Bob:

I pay substantial property taxes. Most of the people paying property taxes own and drive cars. In this neck of the woods most renters aren’t really paying property tax (do the numbers on rental property – renting is a good deal cashflow wise for a reason).

Meanwhile, from Wikipedia, which may well be wrong, but might just be correct:

“The federal taxes go into general coffers and help to fund a range of programs: $2 billion of the approximately $5 billion collected from federal excise taxes goes into the now permanent annual Gas Tax Fund for municipal infrastructure. Provincial tax revenues usually go to fund road repair and construction, and additionally in some provinces a portion of revenues (for example, 2 cents/litre in Ontario) is also distributed directly to municipalities.”

There is only one taxpayer. Right now most of them have cars, and the taxpayer pays for roads.

I’m not anti-bike, btw, but as a professional deal-maker I’ve long understood that a win-win, where each side could theoretically switch sides or walk away happy is the best deal. With that in mind, ask this question: if car drivers had to fund all car related expenses, including infrastructure, and bike riders and transit users had to pay the costs of their system, and the three did not overlap, who would be further ahead? I think there are some interesting implications there.

Comment on Do We Need More Bike Lanes Or Do We Have Enough? by Bob

Bob — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:06:24 +0000

Gas taxes don’t pay for municipal roads, property taxes do. So car drivers aren’t “paying for” anything for cyclists – they do that themselves on their own property taxes (unless they’re homeless.)