The one good thing I'll say about the free staters is that they are inspiring political participation. Can someone explain to me how free staters aren't just a bunch of tax dodgers who want to gut NH's already basic social programs and infrastructure investments? All I ever see from them is a "fuck you, I've got mine" mentality. I'm just so tired of it.

One has to appreciate that part of the "unsustainable status quo" happened because of a subsidy voucher program that is being utilized.

Somehow, everywhere else seems to be soldiering on without cutting their budgets in half.

"Our low cost options could be going away"

Jody - your low cost options were being supported by the state's tax dollars. Everyone's costs are going up. It's reality. What was "low cost" 5 years ago is "not enough" today.

Education is expensive, and it is 100% true that simply throwing money at it will hit the point of diminishing returns. Please, be a reasonable foil to unnecessary costs expended and keep the budget in check. But what the Underwoods did a year ago was dishonest, and painted a huge target on their back as they took actions - essentially unilaterally - that the town was clearly not in support of.

Kick dirt in your face?

Don't mind if I do.

As a childless person, I want the kids to have a good education, and am happy to pay a reasonable amount of taxes in order to support that education.

Totally agree, I plan to never have childen, but I happily support my tax dollars going to education and child care. They are the future of our state, country and planet. It's the right thing to do.

So now the guy behind the cuts is saying they don't have enough money for schools? I never thought leopards would eat MY face.

He's being petty. Basically trying to argue that if they're going to fund education then they might as well spend all their money on it. I'm sure from their perspective it was a win: "See, people don't actually want to fund schools properly, they're just afraid of change."

The problem is that even if their proposed increase was sound, they have burned any trust they had in the community.

More like, don't tread on me, you don't own me so stop using the state to take from me without my consent. Not that hard to understand.

You get taxed to pay for the services that we as a community agreed we wanted. It's compulsive because if it's not some people will use the services without paying. If you don't like it, you are free to leave our community. Every club has it's dues and those who cheat are not welcome.

Most people don't vote.

Why don't you leave?

Most people do vote. *Not enough" people vote, but voter turnout is consistently over 50% in NH.

That's of registered voters in some elections. Of the total humans, no.

That wasn't really my point though.

Might does not make right.

I like it here and while we are able to continue to push back against the free staters and other abusers I will likely stay. What I don't like are tax dodgers who conspire to move to our communities and argue against solving real issues and instead make proposals that would legalize tax dodging, gut our social programs and leave those who need help to their own devices.

If the day comes that you guys are able to create your libertarian "utopia", I will probably be forced to leave and watch my once beautiful state burn from the outside. Luckily, as I said above, free staters are inspiring us to get involved.

What would you expect to happen if you joined a gated community and started using their pool, golfing on their course, booking parties in their activity rooms etc. and then refused to pay your fees? Would you whine about how they're stealing from you while you get evicted?

It's not might? It's a democratic process. Through a democratic process, it was decided that if you live in our society you have a responsibility to help maintain and advance our society. Pretty much the base concept of civilization. Society prospers through collective investment. Society crumbles through individualism. The idea that any but a handful of people would be better off in an ideal Libertarian society is laughable. It's basically a fast-track to modern feudalism.

The FSP is like if they joined a gated community and whined about the fees. Then they get all their friends to also join the gated community so one day they can vote to cut all the fees and let all the amenities and infrastructure go to shit. Then inevitably the shared road will fall apart and break someone's suspension, and the solution will be "well if you wanted to use the road you should have fixed it yourself"

Then if someone does fix it they'll start demanding a fee higher than the original and claim it as a great victory for the free market. Meanwhile the people who originally lived there have been forced to move away because it's become too expensive to live there.

Your vote doesn't actually change anything. You can't change how other people vote. You have zero individual control over the force others want to use against you. Democracy = Evil system.

I don't think my eyes could roll further into my skull

Good for you. I'm glad your avatar has a mask on too.

🤣 you're such a fucking tool

Yeah it's tough