Book of the Black Dog

“One observes the survivors, and learns from them.” Bene Gesserit Teaching

For those of you intrested in such things. Keep an eye out at 11 minutes after 10am for then it will be: 07-08-09 10:11

That is all.

Not unless it's dissolved in a liquid, but I digress.

A story just came out about a pro-marijuana group suggesting that pot may be the way out of CA's financial mess. By legalizing, and taxing it as a means of solving the states massive budget problems.

On the surface, it looks like a good idea, but just past that...not so much. First some qualifiers and reveals. 1) I am for marijuana legalization. I think that it's been over demonized and there are enough products from the plant that I think it should be considered as a taxable cash crop. 2) I'm not a marijuana user, for a multitude of reasons first of which is that it is still currently illegal. Secondly, I don't get altered all that often even by legal means, the other reasons are miscelanea.

So, why do I feel it's not such a good idea? Well a lot of it falls down to enforcement. Sure, there would be a certain population willing to pay their taxes to buy or grow and sell pot. However there is and has existed a much larger population that because of the illegality of the drug would not suddenly look forward to having Uncle Sam (or in this case Cousin Arnie)taking a bite out of their profits and become the updated moonshiners. This will likely not slow down the pot industry, only now they would be adding tax evasion to their resume.

Second, because it is still Federally illegal, there is no way that it would pass a single court case.

Third, in my head it becomes a slippery slope. Great, marijuana taxes fill the coffers, but will likely quickly reduce in intake for two reasons. 1) Initial use would increase out of the novelty, but would probably level out or drop off. 2)Legislators who see an uptick in revenue and unlikely to see the possibility of the money dropping off (I base this on past action and human nature) will increase spending only to be screwed when the tax revenue does drop back off. So then what becomes the next "quick fix"? Legalize prostitution? There are a number of unpopular laws that could be taken off and taxed, but that doesn't necessary mean that taking them off the books is a good thing or benefits society.

So ends my mental rambling.

So after reading an article about the differences between Obama and Palin, it pointed out a very interesting point that resonated with me. Palin's attraction seemed to do a lot with class distinction. Barack Obama represents the meritocratic ideal — that anyone, from any background, can grow up to attend Columbia and Harvard Law School and become a great American success story. But Sarah Palin represents the democratic ideal — that anyone can grow up to be a great success story without graduating from Columbia and Harvard.

The point that struck me was that the Democratic candidate was the meritocratic ideal. The idea that if you have your poop in a group, and have drive and do well you can and will be successful. Where the Republican candidate seemed to express the message of you can and should have a chance to be successful even without that.

To me that seems terribly backwards to each party's core messages. The Democratic Party seems to have always believed that a rising tide should raise all the boats, where the Republicans seemed to extol the virtues of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps.

I myself believe in meritocracy. I want my leaders to be the elite, the cream of the crop. But I do realize that meritocracy tends toward cronyism. If you don't go to the right schools, etc doors won't be open to you to provide to opportunity to excell to the elite. On the other hand, over Democratization leads to the observation that cream is not the only thing that rises. I believe that without the competition there is no reason to excel and little progress. A great bland blah.

If you want to read the article for yourself:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/opinion/06ross.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss