Our local NPR station (from MSU) interviewed an economics professor from MSU named Charles L. Ballard this morning. For solving the problem of Michigan's budget crisis, he advocates imposing a state sales tax on services to make up for the tax dollars the state is not collecting because its businesses are going bankrupt and its residents are unemployed.
He tried to head off the argument that it would hurt the poor, who are already burdened with the sales tax on goods, by saying that poor people don’t buy a lot of services. According to Professor Ballard, in fact, it’s the upscale folks to who hire lawyers and accountants and who go to tanning salons and professional sports events, and then he said – and if this isn’t verbatim, it’s freaky-close to his exact words -- “When I go to the symphony I don't see a lot of poor people."
Really, Charley? How could you tell? You didn’t see anybody dressed in rags? Or it wasn’t the first of the month right after the welfare checks arrive? And how close were you to the upper balcony where the cheap seats are, Charley?
OK. I’m done blasting this guy for being an insensitive lout. After all, he's right – poor folks can’t afford tickets to the symphony.
And isn’t that a shame?
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