At the end of the day, one must decide how they are going to look at events. Rising quickly in Cobb County is the new SunTrust sports stadium for the Altanta Braves, courtesy of Cobb County. There is a ton of labor being used to build this stadium. Those authorities that made this happen cheer the jobs created to make it happen. But there is another side to that coin. How much labor does that stadium represent in tax dollars taken from residents to make that happen? With a little math and a few assumptions we can get ourselves into the ballpark on what all of this government goodness is costing us. We are only going to look at the impact from Cobb County’s perspective, although other government dollars are indeed flowing from every direction, including the Georgia DOT. http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/cobb-to-borrow-376-million-for-suntrust-park/nnRHm/ http://ycharts.com/indicators/average_hourly_earnings The US average hourly wage is $25.09, and Cobb County will make annual debt payments of $22.4 million on that debt. How may hours of labor does just the annual debt payments represent?[read more=”Read more” less=”Read less”] 892,785 hours. Per year. Unfortunately those are before tax calculations. After tax earnings per hour for Georgia residents making the average hourly wage would be $19.54 per hour We will need to adjust for taxes because Cobb County residents will need to pay with after tax dollars. That works out to 1,146,065 hours per year for the next 20 years. That’s a lot of labor to build a stadium for a team that is privately owned and operated on the back of tax payers. Is this the proper role of our governments at the local level? Reallocating your hard earned dollars for the benefits of private businesses and corporations? Most of us know that the answer is no. Yet across the nation, stadiums are being built like this more often and more expensively than ever- most often at the local level, and with your tax dollars. http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-sports-stadium-shakedown-of-americas-taxpayers-crony-capitalist-corruption-on-steriods/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mailing+List+Mid+Day+Friday “Over the past 15 years, more than $12 billion in public money has been spent on privately owned stadiums.” That’s a stunning total. That is 12,000 million dollars. We often lose site of the total value of the money because of their sheer size. How many hours does that represent to work and be taxed to collect on behalf of local governments? If you took everything the workers earned after taxes, that would be over 613 million hours. Astonishing isn’t it? All for private places of business. If we want to turn this tide, we have to start locally, and aim for the largest projects that local governments want to do with our tax dollars to benefit the private sector. Only then will we begin to turn the tide on this wasteful spending. Wasteful spending that is being paid for with your labor. What can you do? Act locally. Get involved with your local Libertarian Affiliate, and target wasteful spending in your community. Let the local leaders know that you are there, you are watching, and frankly you have had enough of your hard earned tax dollars going to benefit private businesses and corporations. Then join us. The Libertarian Party of Georgia. We are THE only party that will not justify this sort of spending. https://lpgeorgia.com/get-involved/join/ For just about one hour’s worth of wages, you will help us to fight for smaller government and lower taxes. More dollars in your pocket at the end of the day means that you have more freedom to spend the money the way you choose. The choice will not be made for you. Think Local. Think Libertarian. ACT! [/read]
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