Life is expensive. At least, it is so in developed countries. But why does life have to be so expensive in one place, and so cheap in another? The problem must lie in the place of residence itself. So what is it about the United States of America and Puerto Rico that makes life so costly? The answer is obvious: The Government. After all, they set the rules. Right?
When I compare life in the 80’s to now I notice a tendency: There are more rules. And with every new rule the Government makes, comes a new expense for the people. Because the rules either impose a monetary sanction for doing something wrong, or not doing something at all, for example a seatbelt ticket, or the rule requires a person to have a permit or certification for doing something. And that permit costs you money. And sometimes they make you renew that permit yearly, or quarterly, or whatever. Making you yet again spend more money.
For example, the rules make it really expensive to “properly” care for a child. They make you vaccinate your child for stupid things like Chicken Pox and spend ridiculous amounts of money on them only to have them tell you, they’ve been held off because their contaminated, or 5 years later you need a booster because people have been getting sick despite the vaccine. What? So you made me give him something that wasn’t even properly researched? And it cost like a $100 dollars? And for what? Me and everybody else I knew from childhood got it and nobody died; nobody got any permanent damage. What’s the point of it then?
In addition to that, the list grew in 5 years (the difference between my two children). Suddenly I had to give the little one vaccines I never had or the older one never had. Hmmmm… If I opt not to vaccinate, I need an affidavit from a lawyer stating why. That costs more money too. So I don’t have to as long as I pay?
Then there’s the car seats. They make you have to have one. They cost like $100 and they EXPIRE. Yes people. The plastic things expire, making you have to buy a new one after a certain amount of time. WTF? And if you don’t have one, what do they do? They make you pay money. It’s not, “leave your car here and we will transport you and your child safely”. It’s “just pay more money and go ahead and have an accident. If you do, we’ll just make you pay more money again”. (This is the same attitude they have with seat belts.)
Then there’s school. For some reason they decided school should end at 3pm. But now a days everyone has to work until 5 or 6pm? What do you do with them between those hours? You need to spend more money on extended care or a nanny. Brilliant!
So let’s say you decided to open up your own business in order to avoid these costs. The Government requires a ridiculous list of permits in order for you to do that. And what happens if you operate your business without the permits? They make you pay.
How devoid of creativity! Their only options of punishment are either pay or lock you up. Subliminally it even sends the message that money is THAT important. So it seems the laws are all wrong. They’re the ones making our lives expensive. They are also the ones establishing the moral code we are to follow. I find it a bit out of whack that when someone who steals money gets caught, they go to jail for 20 years, but when someone who rapes gets caught, they only go for only 5 (or child molesters, for that matter). It tells the world stealing is worse than raping, and I’m not so sure about that.
So the point of the whole rant is that we really need to evaluate our laws. If we aim to reduce our costs, we must do so at the root. What’s with all the rules and requirements and expenses?
I could go on… There’s a lot more where this is concerned. What do you guys think? The other day I read some states don’t allow people to collect rain water. Again more fines if you do… This list is probably endless.
