UPDATED: How Maryland Legislators are Increasing Crime, or Why our Lawmakers are IDIOTS!

As we speak, Maryland lawmakers are locked in debate over not whether to, but which and how much to raise various taxes on all people in MD. This comes with the backdrop of an energy cost increase of 50% several months ago, with the balance of a 72% increase on the way. And another bump in that rate was approved just this week. Gasoline is up by approximately 50% in the last 3 or so years, with more increases on the way; $4.00 per gallon by January is not out of the question (check gasoline prices at AAA and trends). Natural gas is expected to cost homeowners an additional 25% this year. Housing prices continue to spiral downward, so the option of selling one's house to "downsize" is not an option. Many people will be lucky to escape foreclosure as it is (article2). Tax revenues are down, as are all economic indicators for the health of the state's economy. Retail sales are way off. Clearly, all Marylanders, especially those at the bottom of the income scale, are feeling the squeeze.

The MD Legislature is currently aiming its sights at the Democrats' most beloved target, the Evil Corporations. How naive. These companies are the engine that provide the power for an energetic economy. That Democrats in Maryland don't understand this is very telling of their rank ignorance of basic principles of economics. So let me lay it all out:

One of two things, or maybe both, will come of the Democratic Legislature's actions:

Corporations operating in Maryland will be forced to raise their prices to offset the new taxes (you didn't think they'd simply absorb them, did you?). This in turn will cause fewer of their items or services to be sold, because those goods are then less price-competitive. Marylanders, also, can less afford them, because they are paying higher taxes and fees across the board as directed by the new taxes coming from this special session. The decrease in business will cause these businesses to need fewer of the widgets they make, which will mean they require fewer workers, who must then be laid off or fired. Unemployed people don't pay taxes, so this in turn will result in less taxes paid to the government; in fact, more money will be paid out from the government in the form of unemployment, welfare and tax credits. And the budget deficit that the taxes were supposed to fix will only get deeper, but with it will go the depth and breadth of the poverty of Marylanders.

Alternatively, corporations will move to other locales with a more favorable tax structure. They will close their doors, fire Maryland workers, and move on to more prosperous (shall we say, "greener?") fields. The ultimate results of which are outlined above.

Now consider this: we discuss incessantly that the major causes of crime are poverty and lack of opportunity. So if there are fewer jobs and higher costs of living, how are people going to survive? It's easy: they'll be forced to steal, or rob, or sell drugs, or do other sorts of crimes just to get by.

Do you think this is far-fetched? It's happened before. Quoted from a study on crime and poverty in Antebellum Boston (Morse. African Americans In Antebellum Boston. :

• Crimes such as theft, robbery, assault, and murder should merit some attention in matters of linking poverty and crime. These crimes are potentially fueled by the lack of goods and the need to obtain those goods. Theft and robbery are directly related to poverty for obvious reasons. Assault and murder can only be linked when there is an intention to rob.

Read this article on how those in poverty use crime as a risk-coping strategy. And, there's other thought that crime causes poverty, making it all a vicious circle.

In short, civilization decreases as a factor of opportunity and hope, plain and simple. Too bad Americans don't do revolutions, like the Russians in 1917. One of those in Annapolis would be interesting...

We live in a time when our economy as a whole is perched in a very precarious position. Governor Oaf'Malley and the rest of the Maryland Legislature who follow him have a very good opportunity to push our local economy well into a recession, if not a flat-out depression. At the least, we can expect crime numbers to go up across the board. We can also expect many families' lives to be ruined by these retarded tax-and-spend policies by the Oaf"Malley Administration.

How that benefits anyone (other than the Governor being able to say, "I balanced the budget") will have to be explained to me.