I never been one to follow the rules.
Mostly because I don’t pay attention to what the rules are.
I am going to summize that that is a rare privledge indeed.
But at some point even the rules that I do become aware of I draw into question.
Here is on example of why.
Who makes the rules and for what end? I suspect that rules were intended for peoples safety. This is one thing I can wrap my brain around. Especially in larger populations and people need to have an agreed upon process for continunity and order. But by that acceptable definition we trusted that the governing body would keep our best interest at heart. Somewhere along the way, that trust was broken. Wether knowingly or unwittingly, We gave away our power to allow others to detemine what those governing rules should be.
An example of this could be paying taxes. Of course everybody has to pay taxes .
That is a rule we have been hammered with over and over.
But did you know you are suppose to pay the Dept of Revenue business tax by electronic funds specfically. If you do not, you get hit with late fees and a penality even if you pay on time by other forms of acceptable legal tender.
Who knew this was a rule? This is how I found out.
I walked right in to their front office on due date and handed them a check. It was accepted wtih the caveat that there would be additional fees forth coming. Why? of course I questioned and recieved an answer that they wanted to do direct electronic withdraws from my checking account. Save time and thus save money. Yeah, saves for them. Apparently their free money was going to cost me.
So let me get this straight. I pay on time and in person and yet there is punishment. I reminded the clerk that the only reason they were getting money from me is because I was in business and got up everyday and worked hard. I created the business , found and developed my client base, provided service and then still taxed and collected from my clients to handle and manage those funds to pass along to the State. My hard work was creating money that I walked in the door and handed to them and yet it was to be penalized because I refuse to give away my personal and private information. ‘Yes, that is the case.’
This was my thanks.
Could you imagine if we all conducted business like that?
I say this is robbery. They said it was the law. I pressed them on that one day. I said if its a law, its a bad law. She said that it was voted upon. I said by the people?, because I doubt the people would agree to such a law. She said well, actually it was more like a guideline. Wait?What?? I had been penalized for two years already and faithfully collected money from the public as payment to them , walked it in the door every month. And now your telling me it isn’t really a law its only a guidline.
So they lied !
How often are we told something like that?
I said, I don’t pay electronically because I was concerned about theft especially since my computer got stolen once and all my bank info was compromised.
She said wait? what? your laptop was stolen? Why didn’t you say so? You qualify for an exemption. WTF???
You mean after two years of paying extra fees, and while paying on time, It was not a rule and I can be exempt?
No, you can not imagine my anger.
‘Here you go, she said, and handed me my exemption. Now I can mail in a check and no more late fees or penalties.
…well as long as they don’t come up with something else. They did. Its been 10 yrs now, I got a letter the other day saying my exemption had expired. I would need to pay online. As you can imagine…I will not.
How far has this gone. How much have we been told that is not in truth? How often and how many ?
Apparently if we do not question we will not be told. If we accept everything that they tell us they will just continue taking and taking and how will we respond? Will we just keep giving and giving? Are we still operating under the assumption that rules are created for our safety? When will we stop giving away our power??!!
I would say STOP. While we the business owners and the good citizens are not against proper governance I suspect while we were ‘not looking’, not paying attention, they discovered we would not question them and they could operate in a manner that benefits themselves.
Not paying attention is going to.. no strike that ,… HAS cost us a lot!
Gaia's Gardens 