$16 million gift goes to the Marion foundation

Here is another large charity gift in the state of Ohio on the books. Apparently it's not even just part of their fortune, but everything they had. It is notable that this gift will double the size of the Marion foundation to give out grants and scholarships.

Various leftists continue to downplay or even denigrate the value of charity in our society. But it is clear in this news and elsewhere that people continue to give, even in this down economy. This is seemingly in direct contradiction to their bleak world view, where only the government is willing to help the poor. As we can see that is far from the truth.

As I have said here before, I believe government's social programs are not charity, but theft. Only a small portion of our taxes ever reach the poor. Most of the stolen booty is lost in bureaucracy and corruption. And if it wasn't for the politicians severe mismanagement of the economy, there would be a lot less poverty to begin with.

Former Obetz officer pleads guilty to sex charge

A bad cop is actually being punished for hurting someone. He could get up to 5 years in jail. This is rare. I still have some problems with this story.

• We don't even know if he will face hard time. No sentencing yet.
• Any normal person would have been charged with rape and a heap of other things. So this scumbag is still getting special treatment.
• I'm not sure what the normal bail is for rape in ohio. But $30k and 5 years in jail seems pretty light. 
• That's even if he gets any time at all. We'll see when the time comes.

I'm glad they are actually doing something. But, too many cops have gotten away with much worse behavior. So far this still looks like a slap on the wrist.

Excessive pay for government employees

At a time when most local government are facing budget problems, the overtime pay for government employees rose to ridiculous lofty heights. Ohio paid out more than $124 million in overtime last year. This only serves to underscore the terrible mismanagement of resources caused by government power. In related news, Toledo's city council failed to increase the taxes of 19,000 people who live in Toledo and work outside the city. So now, the combative mayor is laying off 75 city policeman instead. Just a couple years ago, Toledo policemen were paid over 3.5 million in overtime money. I'm sure it's a lot more now, probably at least $5 million. See this.

Perhaps what we should do is limit all government pay to the median local income. There is absolutely no reason why government employees should make a dime more than those they are supposed to serve. If there are so many people who believe that government is good, there should still be plenty of volunteers who would take the job. It is well known that they enjoy generous compensation and benefits, and getting rid of these would save millions of dollars locally and statewide.

Toledo's mayor Finkbeiner is paid $136,000. Toledo's median income for males as of the year 2000 was $35,407. Dropping the mayor's income to this level would save city taxpayers about $100,000. The average annual salary for a three year Toledo Police officer is $53,657 not including overtime pay or benefits. There are currently 628 police officers employed by the city. At these levels, which are probably pretty low, cutting their salary to the city's average would save taxpayers at least $11,461,000 per year... and a LOT more once their overtime is taken away.

We can no longer afford to sit by while government bureaucrats waste our money on thier own inflated salaries. The benefits we get from having a government (if any) are far less than what these people earn. Important resources are taken from the productive class and siphoned off to the political class, extremely hampering our economic well being. Things will only get worse unless we are successful in taking back our freedom. This would also make existing budget problems disappear.

The State's animal cruelty

Not only is the State terrible at taking care of children, as we saw in our last post, it also can't manage animals. A Columbus Dispatch article from last week details the abusive conditions heaped on helpless animals by the Franklin County animal shelter. It should give pause to animal rights activists who clamor for more state control over animal issues. Anyone who is considering adopting an animal from a state operated shelter should think twice before making this decision. These shelters think nothing of pushing vicious and aggressive dogs on unsuspecting families.

Like many other types of activists, animal rights people often push for more state intervention. Clearly, the vast government incompetence demonstrated here is not suitable for them to achieve their goals. If only they realized what they are asking, they would stop immediately and use what funding and resources they have to set up their own private shelters and wildlife preserves. Not only would it be much better for their cause, they wouldn't be forcing others to fund their desires.

Personally, I think the large amount human suffering in the world deserves more attention than animal suffering. I have no problem if you want to spend your own money to help alleviate the suffering of helpless animals. That is your right. However, you don't have a right to shove your way into my wallet in support of your favorite causes. Especially if it results in even more animal cruelty.

State fails, kids die

Whether you want to believe it or not, state failures are all over the place in our society. If there ever was a rallying cry for state action, it would be "won't somebody think of the children!" Normally, the person saying this implies that they think the state should act to make some law, and this would magically solve whatever problem they're discussing. If these people really knew how the state operates, they would be making this exclamation with the intent of getting the state out of the protection business entirely.

Even in cases of directly caring for children, the state doesn't live up to expectations, to say the least. In the latest harrowing example, The Columbus Dispatch examined the record of their county child services. They found that 87 out of 234 children who died of abuse did so under the protective care of the state. State workers regularly fail to act on complaints of child abuse when called. In one particularly bad case where a child died, there were 12 calls to county officials over 4 weeks where they did nothing. The basis of this report is that this death wasn't just an anomaly, nor will it be the last.

Contributing to the care of needy children isn't a bad thing. It only becomes a bad thing when the state is entrusted in their care and children end up dying on their watch. Naturally, the solution outlined in this article is to throw away even more resources on these failures (much like public education). There are some rumblings in state officials to create a statewide child care system, instead of relying on county governments. If only they had more resources, and took more moeny from the people, they could do better. Where have I heard that tripe before?