I feel for you. I'm in NJ. Highest property taxes in the country. I have a small ranch house (1800 sq. ft.). I pay $6500 a year in property taxes. Good friends of ours just moved to DE. A comparable property there? Less than a grand a year. Not to mention, the highest car insurance rates, most restrictive firearms laws (with the possible exception of California), worst infrastructure (our roads are for shit) and the highest cancer rate in the country. There are two kinds of people in NJ. Those who are leaving and those who wish they could. I am in the latter category.
What about any kind of sport just recently. Most pundits/commentators are telling us that football, rugby, golf and any other kind of sport must “be inclusive “ When I was a kid I’m not sure if there were gay people, but there must have been, but no one was ever stopped from being in the school team if they were any good. There was one team, the best one available and heaven forbid, we wanted to win. I didn’t get up on a cold Sunday morning and run around on an icy pitch ripping my thighs apart on the ground just to take part. Watched 10 minutes of the Commonwealth Games ceremony. On stage were there were three non males and all I took from what they had to say was “ for the first time there are more medals for women than men” Who cares? No one stops anyone taking part in sport as far as I am aware. Well done to the womens’ football team but how many tests before we have the “ not sure what I want to be World Cup” As things stand now they will have to start the play offs very early as they will be inundated with so many teams.
"Not sure what I want to be" {NSWIWTB} is fine... NOT really. The decision {by the Olympic Committee} that the competitor must have made the decision as to "what am I?" prior to its 12th birthday, is that of cowards. It moves the issue to young children and predators.
'Baby on board' stickers, seem to remember them being introduced to tell the emergency services to look for them in serious crashes. Now they seem to indicate the mental age of the driver.
Having worked thirty years as a Fireman I can definitely say that I never even noticed any stickers on the vehicles we turned out to. Baby seat or booster cushions yeah we saw those indications of perhaps children. Stickers? Never even looked for them. I don’t like having any stickers on my vehicles as I think they look tacky.
"Not sure what I want to be" {NSWIWTB}... https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/w...sedgntp&cvid=9bb65cc5f7fc4607aab4626731df10c1 "Predators R US"
'Twas one of the American ' exports' that a few people started using. I did wonder if it was to remind them that they had kids in the car.
CHARGERS AND CREEPERS I HATE, HATE, HATE both! Chargers - Those meatheads who charge up to a stop sign on the side street you are approaching when you have the right of way, and look as though they are going to blow the stop, then they stand on the brakes at the last minute as you feel your nuts climbing up into your chest cavity. Creepers - The cretins who are stopped on the side street you are approaching when you have the right of way, but start rolling, ever so slowly, past the stop line - "Are they gonna go?" "Do they see me?" "Should I say a Hail Mary?" Did I say I HATE, HATE, HATE them both?
So, when a cretin driving like an a$$hole sees the "Child on board" or "Baby on board" sticker on a car they will suddenly reflect on their bad driving habits and become model drivers? They remind me of the "Gun Free Zone" signs. I'm sure that an armed mope approaching a gun free zone with bad intent would see the sign and decide not to do bad things.
Have a look at this :- https://www.theoldhamtimes.co.uk/news/23601923.oldham-takeaway-owner-banned-food-businesses-life/ In this day and age, how the hell can people get away with running premises like this ? Because places like this don't get this dirty overnight.
ROAD TAX! My car is apparently ULEZ compliant and as such I've only ever paid £30 a year to tax it. I can't really complain about that as its a 2 litre Diesel and as we all know a 600cc and above motorcycle costs well over £100 to tax for the same period. I've had the car 4 years and the tax has never gone up in that time. You know what's coming right? Yes, its gone up to £35 this year. 'Why are you moaning' I hear you say? Its only a fiver more. Yes it is, but that equates to a 16% increase which to my mind is a bl**dy lot. Robbing gits. Whilst I'm having a moan, as I have 4 roadworthy bikes, only one under 600cc, my road tax bill is fairly hefty. I can't ride all 4 at once, so why not have a system where the owner/rider/driver pays the tax on a personal basis and is able to drive/ride all of his/her vehicles for a one off annual payment? A similar system is used in the States I believe. Perhaps Sandi or one of our other stateside members can explain their system better. ,
Bikes are over-taxed. It's ridiculous that a bike is charged over £100 but a diesel car gets away with £35
A personal tax @johne as you suggest for a multi vehicle owner, such as probably most on here, wouldn't create the same revenue. Let's forget all this green planet BS as at the end of the day the government spends loads and sells/makes or otherwise "earns" absolutely nothing! My 65 plate car, is £20 pa. My 72 plate car is £165 pa, both petrols. If this really was about emissions then surely the 7 year newer car would be cheapest, no? My x3 over 600cc bikes are, what is it, £105 pa each. Our motorhome is the real pisstake, least road miles used a year yet over £320 pa. So I make that over £800 in road tax plus over £3k/yr in council tax so probably need to earn over £6k just to cover those liabilities and get my bins emptied.... absolute joke!
My Husaberg at 570cc just falls into the lower tax rate for bikes with the others at full wack. My 25yr old diesel 4x4 is not categorised by actual emissions numbers but classed as over 1549cc at £325 PA. Sooner or later they're going to start coming down heavily on people who hang on to older vehicles IMO.
Older vehicles will be the means to subsidise the electric change over before we all get a shock See what I did there
