New Year Wish List: Things We Shouldn't Have to Pay For in the New Year
Posted: Thursday, December 30, 2010
by Mogama
http://www.mogama.info
It does not baffle me that cost of living increases as quality of life improves. In my African hometown where we used fire, bamboo torches, jack o-lanterns, and kerosene lamps, no one received light bills. In rural Liberia our people do not pay tolls for their roads; they walk on trails that they themselves blaze or maintain. And because transportation is largely on foot, those rural Liberians need not defray the cost of greenhouse gases. Their subsistence farming habits emit CO2, but nothing on the scale of pollutants spewed into our ecosystem by automobiles, trains and airplanes.
I see why we must pay for the comforts and conveniences that underdeveloped parts of the globe lack. However, I think developed societies have taken the whole cost of living template too far. There must be some things that even people living in North America should not have to pay for, even if we claim that our terrain is the nirvana of Planet Earth.
1. Driver's license: Here in Kentucky my driver's license, by design, is set to expire and be renewed every four years. Why? My passport lasts for ten years. Why give my driver's license such a short lifespan? I should only have to pay a driver's license renewal fee when I lose my license, when it's so old that I choose to get a new one, or when I forfeit it by drunk or reckless driving.
2. Vehicle registration: When I buy a car in Kentucky I pay a 6% sales tax plus registration which includes transfer of ownership title. Fair enough. But then for every year that I own this vehicle for as long as I own it, I have to renew its registration by paying taxes tied to the market value of the car. Even if the car is broken down and out of traffic for the year, the state requires me to re-register it.
3. Incoming cell phone calls: On my Sprint account I get 450 anytime minutes. You'd be surprised how quickly those minutes evaporate. Someone calls, I answer, the person says, “Oh, sorry, wrong number.” The caller should have added, “You must pay for this call. Thanks.” Several months in a roll I went over the limit, and Sprint gladly charged me 45 cents per minute for the overage. If Africans ride free incoming calls, why are we putting up with this financial abuse by the major cellular service carriers?
4. Most television channels: Our household subscribes to Direct TV's Choice Extra programing package that boasts “over 210 channels”. After printing out our package lineup, I counted 55 television “channels” listed under “Satellite Radio”! So “radio” is actually “television”? That leaves 155 real TV channels, and of those, if we had a real “choice” as the name “Choice Extra” suggests, we would order à la carte 20 channels that we actually watch! But then Direct TV wouldn't make $80 per month from us. I wish this New Year will be the year that cable and satellite companies will stop charging us for useless channels.
5. Internet service: If we consider the World Wide Web the Information Highway, then why not pay for it the same way we pay for the highway system of streets, interstates, roads and bridges? The cost is already factored into our taxes. (I'm not a fan of toll road either, so don't make the toll road argument as an excuse to charge for Internet service.) Also, the Internet has become a necessary part of our education system; the cost should be included with taxes for education.
6. Clean Water: As the juice of life, water is life in liquid form. Water is so essential to life that charging us for water is like charging us for air and sunlight. I wish that towns, cities, states, stores and people return to the courtesy of giving, not selling, water. During the Good Samaritan age of human existence we considered it inhumane to charge someone for a cup of water. How things have changed! No wonder we barely see and treat each other like neighbors anymore! Call me primitive, but it's still bad business and bad government to profit from selling water to fellow human beings, especially not-so-clean tap water or so-called "spring" water.
That's my wish list for the New Year: stop paying for driver's license, yearly registration of our vehicles, cell phone calls I did not initiate, television channels I don't want, and water of life. Perhaps you can think of other things people shouldn't have to pay for, even in developed countries? ~mogama~
1. Driver's license: Here in Kentucky my driver's license, by design, is set to expire and be renewed every four years. Why? My passport lasts for ten years. Why give my driver's license such a short lifespan? I should only have to pay a driver's license renewal fee when I lose my license, when it's so old that I choose to get a new one, or when I forfeit it by drunk or reckless driving.
2. Vehicle registration: When I buy a car in Kentucky I pay a 6% sales tax plus registration which includes transfer of ownership title. Fair enough. But then for every year that I own this vehicle for as long as I own it, I have to renew its registration by paying taxes tied to the market value of the car. Even if the car is broken down and out of traffic for the year, the state requires me to re-register it.
3. Incoming cell phone calls: On my Sprint account I get 450 anytime minutes. You'd be surprised how quickly those minutes evaporate. Someone calls, I answer, the person says, “Oh, sorry, wrong number.” The caller should have added, “You must pay for this call. Thanks.” Several months in a roll I went over the limit, and Sprint gladly charged me 45 cents per minute for the overage. If Africans ride free incoming calls, why are we putting up with this financial abuse by the major cellular service carriers?
4. Most television channels: Our household subscribes to Direct TV's Choice Extra programing package that boasts “over 210 channels”. After printing out our package lineup, I counted 55 television “channels” listed under “Satellite Radio”! So “radio” is actually “television”? That leaves 155 real TV channels, and of those, if we had a real “choice” as the name “Choice Extra” suggests, we would order à la carte 20 channels that we actually watch! But then Direct TV wouldn't make $80 per month from us. I wish this New Year will be the year that cable and satellite companies will stop charging us for useless channels.
5. Internet service: If we consider the World Wide Web the Information Highway, then why not pay for it the same way we pay for the highway system of streets, interstates, roads and bridges? The cost is already factored into our taxes. (I'm not a fan of toll road either, so don't make the toll road argument as an excuse to charge for Internet service.) Also, the Internet has become a necessary part of our education system; the cost should be included with taxes for education.
6. Clean Water: As the juice of life, water is life in liquid form. Water is so essential to life that charging us for water is like charging us for air and sunlight. I wish that towns, cities, states, stores and people return to the courtesy of giving, not selling, water. During the Good Samaritan age of human existence we considered it inhumane to charge someone for a cup of water. How things have changed! No wonder we barely see and treat each other like neighbors anymore! Call me primitive, but it's still bad business and bad government to profit from selling water to fellow human beings, especially not-so-clean tap water or so-called "spring" water.
That's my wish list for the New Year: stop paying for driver's license, yearly registration of our vehicles, cell phone calls I did not initiate, television channels I don't want, and water of life. Perhaps you can think of other things people shouldn't have to pay for, even in developed countries? ~mogama~
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Top-level comments on this article: (7 total)I actually can't think of any, I've got so used to everything costing! At least air is still free :)Please log in to respond to this comment."At least air is still free:)"
Ahhh.... Breathe easy, Jennifer, while you still can without paying a fee. ~mogama~Please log in to respond to this comment.:)
Please log in to respond to this comment.If humankind ever manages to create living space on the Moon, we may have to pay for air as well.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Mogama, my greatest wish is to stop paying for food, water and shelter. Millions are starving and they must all have equal access to the natural resources which unfortunately have been restricted by draconian laws. Man draws a line and says "This is mine and you can't enter. You got to pay to get something back. If you can't then starve to death." This is a problem with no solution at all. Apart from this, what you addressed is a common global issue today. Student loans in India are offered at 12% while car loans are offered for 8%. Farmers are committing suicides every year because they are not receiving any grants from the government while banks are loaning money for cars and corporates. Ridiculous! Thank you.Please log in to respond to this comment.You make a great point, DM, that the priorities are totally out of phase with the needs of the masses. Yes, it is "ridiculous" that car loans get better interest rate than student loans, and banks more easily lend to businesses than they lend to farmers who produce FOOD, a necessity! Very disturbing. ~mogama~Please log in to respond to this comment.
It's called capitalism Mr. Mogama, and we are eaten up with it. It's like cancer that if left untreated (unregulated) will eat away at you until it robs you of your very life. Then they will overcharge and tax your family to give you a respectful burial. Isn't it wonderful? And corporations have a large portion of the population believing that it needs to be even more unregulated. In other words, we are a country that worships cancer. Love your work.Please log in to respond to this comment."It's called capitalism... they will overcharge and tax your family to give you a respectful burial." But that sounds so cold, David! It sends chills down my... Appreciate your input, David. ~mogama~Please log in to respond to this comment.
Hi Mogama.
Excellently written article and very good points too. But change is hard and I don't see any of that changing any time soon. I can agree with just about all of your points except maybe for the water and the Internet.
It seems to me that if we continue to want clean water delivered to our homes, we should pay for it to be delivered. If we wanted to go out and fill up containers with water for our household use and transport them home ourselves, that would be a different matter. There are people living in areas not to far from where I live that do not have good wells and must carry their water home. They are forced to pay for that water in order to get it from a clean source. Clean is the issue here. Our water providers do a pretty good job of ensuring that the water they deliver is free of microbial contaminants. That's not something you could be sure of if you went and dipped your buckets in a local river.
Also, we pay for the production and delivery of electricity and natural gas to our homes and it is not a far stretch for me to see that paying for Internet connectivity is very similar to paying for connectivity to the electrical grid.
But I do understand your point and agree with you in many areas. As for what else I might like to get for free ... I don't really know. Because if we are paying for it through taxation, then it really isn't free after all.
It's a real mess, as far as I'm concerned, but it's the only mess we have right now.
Hugs,
DiannePlease log in to respond to this comment."It's a real mess, as far as I'm concerned, but it's the only mess we have right now." I get your take, Dianne, though I still think that giving rather than selling clean water would speak of our society's hospitality simply because water, like air, is so essential to life itself. But I guess we pay to breathe clean air too so we might as well keep paying for clean water. ~mogama~Please log in to respond to this comment.
The government will find any and all ways to separate you from your money so they can spend it, or should I say waste it.Please log in to respond to this comment."The government will find any and all ways to separate you from your money..." And it's often a painful separation, Val. Thanks for sharing. ~mogama~Please log in to respond to this comment.
Even air today if you pull into a service station for air for your tires It cast you so much at the pump. You just can't win in today's so called modern society.Good article MogamaPlease log in to respond to this comment.Oophh... I didn't think of that form of air! Very perceptive of you, David. Thanks for sharing. ~mogama~Please log in to respond to this comment.
Wise words!Please log in to respond to this comment.Thanks, Nadine, for commenting. ~mogama~Please log in to respond to this comment.
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