Politics: Of Taxes and Traffic

While driving around Chicago, we often came upon people who were "guiding" traffic in intersections that already had fully-functioning traffic lights. Drivers literally ignored these folks in favor of using the traffic lights. It seemed fairly wasteful - why pay a person to do what is already being accomplished safely and efficiently by an automated system? It got even more ridiculous when I found out how much Illinois citizens, and Chicago residents in particular, pay in taxes.

Illinois, unlike Florida, has a state income tax. Additionally, people in Cook County have to pay various county taxes. There's also a state sales tax as well as local sales taxes (the highest of which, of course, is in Chicago). Combine that with property taxes that are often double of those in Florida, and you find that you have a lot of your income, no matter how rich or how poor you are, going to the government.

I guess that's all well and good, but when all that money is being spent to put some guy on the street to ineffectually wave at traffic all day, you wonder why more people don't complain...