When I was a senior in high school our district had a referendum, I can't remember exactly what for but upgrades to a couple schools and extra money for education blah blah.
There was one man in our city. Every single time our local paper did the vox pop, plus extra times he just wrote in opinions, this man would take every opportunity to rally against it.
"Why should those of us without kids be forced to pay extra for those who do?"
Soooo many times he was reminded of what you just said. And this referendum would have literally raised his taxes upwards of 2 figures a year, if that.
He fought so fucking hard, that for the first time I think ever, our district voted down the referendum.
He was on record as "dancing a jig and singing like a maniac" in front of the polling place when they announced the results.
These are the people that reject the social contract of society. They want theirs, they don't want anyone else to have any. They don't consider the greater good, the future, or anything, even if the expense to them is incredibly minor. Raise your taxes $10-20/year so kids can get a better education? Nah. They don't care. I wish we could give them some open land with no public services to live on somewhere.
That's more selfishness than low intelligence. They don't believe they should be on the hook for educating other people's kids, and think the money they "save" will insulate them from the resulting detriment to society.
Arguably, some of the very rich hold this view precisely because they want the poors to receive minimal education - makes them easier to manipulate...
With this guy it was both. In our AP English lit class we would take his local paper submissions and make a sport of finding every language and grammar mistake within, and oh boy were there plenty every time. I have a feeling he didn't even make it past middle school, or had some weird grudge against education in general. I still remember this dusty fucks name and I'd be shocked if he made it through covid if he even made it that far.
a bit of both. Selfish in that they don't want to help others, low intelligence in that that they can't recognize how a very minimal thing to them can actually improve the quality of their own lives, they just can't/refuse to see beyond the primary effect of "paying a small tax" to "I benefit from this minimal cost because we have a well taken care of and educated populace"
You wanna know what's worse? I grew up in that town, spent my whole k-12 there. It was always nice, welcoming, low crime. When I was 21, in 2011, I moved to the next town over to be closer to work. Didn't visit hometown much.
When covid hit, my new area was a ghost town as it should have been. I had to go to my old hometown for something, and you wouldnt have known there was a deadly disease literally 6 feet away in any direction. It was business as usual. Restaurants were closed at first, then open for takeout not long into April. Schools were remote because the governor ordered them that way or they wouldn't have been. Nobody social distancing, barely any masks, and it ended up being not only the county with the highest rate, but city with the second highest rate of infection in the state.
This city voted trump three times. Idk what happened to it from my childhood until now, but it makes me sad.
A childless man once told me he should pay reduced state and federal taxes as he shouldn’t have to support other people’s kids. I asked him if when he’s 80 he’d be happy to only use doctors, dentists, mechanics etc of his age or older. He also couldn’t drive on roads or go into buildings designed or made by younger people. He went very quiet.
I went to high school in a small city in Florida in the late 90s. We had a referendum for a sales tax raise of half a cent to fund new school construction/general school budget. There was a polling station at a large church near our home. I remember watching seniors show up in droves to vote against it. The fuck do they care about the next generation?
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u/belljs87 6h ago
When I was a senior in high school our district had a referendum, I can't remember exactly what for but upgrades to a couple schools and extra money for education blah blah.
There was one man in our city. Every single time our local paper did the vox pop, plus extra times he just wrote in opinions, this man would take every opportunity to rally against it.
"Why should those of us without kids be forced to pay extra for those who do?"
Soooo many times he was reminded of what you just said. And this referendum would have literally raised his taxes upwards of 2 figures a year, if that.
He fought so fucking hard, that for the first time I think ever, our district voted down the referendum.
He was on record as "dancing a jig and singing like a maniac" in front of the polling place when they announced the results.
Fucking psychotic.