I hear many people complaining about taxes–I personally think they should be higher (lots higher on some folks and corporations). This stand will not be popular among many of you, and I’m fine with that. My way is very unlikely to come about here, so no reason to get your knickers in a twist.
Anyway, the Europeans (IMO) have it much more right. They fund things like the arts better (and then there is universal health and much cheaper university…). If we did the same, then we too could have 3-day programs for our creatives to improve their businesses…free.
As it is we don’t. Programs offered by groups like ASMP and APA have fees. They are very low, though, especially when you consider the cost to put these events on. Usually the events cost around $25 or less for an evening event and SB2 was (if memory serves) around $300 for the weekend…and yet people complain about them. People who don’t live in the cities where the events take place, complain that the events are not offered online, etc.
By choosing not to live in, say, Chicago, the complainer is benefitting from the lower cost of living, compared to the city. The trade off is that you don’t get everything that the city offers. If the complainer wants what the city offers, s/he either has to move or to pay the extra cost to travel to the city for the event. There is no right to something for nothing in the USA. I checked, 🙂
Besides, a big part of the benefits of the event, any event, is the human interaction. You really need to be there to get the most out of any lecture, presentation, whatever. And producing the materials to appear online or in DVD format takes a lot of time, effort, and, yes, money, which means they are not going to be cheap to buy.
Attending events like those offered by the pro groups are part of your continuing education. Lawyers and other professions MUST take continuing ed. courses to stay licensed–these events are the same sort of thing for your profession. The cost is an investment in your business, and a very important one. SO stop kvetching about the inconvenience and cost and just go–go and meet people and learn. It’s good for your business and good for you.
I’m not sure about the Europeans getting the funding right – at least from the squeals of pain from various arts and local community sports lobbies, due to funding cuts, with the money diverted to preparing for the 2012 London Olympic games
As for the moans and groans about travelling to large events and conventions, for me, it comes down to importance. If it is important enough for me, I’ll figure out a way to sacrifice enough Starbucks coffees, PDN’s or pints of Guiness to attend 🙂
There is nothing preventing you from paying more taxes if you like. Just take all your business expense receipts and toss ’em. 🙂
Instructions for additional payments are also located on Page 77 of the Form 1040 Instruction circular. Go nuts!
M
MarcW: I hope you are just being sarcastic and didn’t deliberately miss the point.
-Leslie
No, no, I saw your point. Your point is that you want me to be taxed more because you think the government doesn’t have enough money to pay for the services you want it to provide. My point is that if you want the government to have more money, you are free to give it to them. The problem is that you want to make me give them more too, and I disagree with you that that’s a good idea. I don’t think they handle the money they *already* take from me very responsibly, so I see no point in giving them any more. The phrase “throwing good money after bad” comes to mind. If I thought they’d use it to do things that actually need doing, I wouldn’t mind so much.
But even if we agreed on which services they should provide – which we probably do in some ways and not in other ways – the second problem is that they won’t use it for those services. They’ll use it to blow people up, or execute helpless prisoners, or build bridges to nowhere. (If any of those are services you want provided, then you see the first problem.) I have a big problem with giving them money to blow people up, I don’t care for giving them money to execute helpless prisoners, and giving them money to build bridges to nowhere just isn’t as funny as it used to was. If I’m going to give more money to something government-related, I’d rather give it to a watchdog or government reform group, and if I’m going to give it for services, I’d rather give it to somebody who provides the actual services.
M
Nope. You entirely missed my point. Too bad.
-Leslie