Government, more or less

I've always fancied myself a less-government kind of girl but a few things I've run into here have annoyed the whooey out of me, until I realized that those things in fact are evidence of less government and what I was wanting was more. . .

Let me explain. . . the library here drives me bonkers because you pretty much pay for just about everything and anything! New releases cost a few dollars to check out, same with videos and magazines. Yesterday I found out that reserving a book costs $2. I mean, seriously? I was annoyed. Then Dugald pointed out that it is a user-pays system, and if I wanted all those things for free (like I was used to at home) it would mean more government money. Another example, I went to the post office today (a little late since we moved two months ago) to file a change of address so our mail would be forwarded. Guess what? Yep, you have to pay for that too. It would cost $20 for two months, $40 for four, etc. Once again I wanted that service to be free, but that too points toward wanting more government.

It's not that they have less government here than at home, in general there is more. We pay a lot more taxes here than we did in Texas - for starters we can't file jointly as a married couple and split Dugald's income between us, but also they just have higher taxes to subsidize healthcare and this interesting thing they call the ACC - Accident Compensation Commission - among other things. The ACC means that pretty much nobody sues anyone else because ACC pays for any injury you might get, anywhere - work, car accident,whatever. I have a friend, who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent, who injured himself because he was drunk and they paid for his injury! They even cover criminals who hurt themselves when breaking into a home, or so I'm told. I find that crazy, but I'm not saying that America is a shining example of a system that 's perfect either. . . I'm just noticing things.

I don't really have a point here, and I still say that in the end I'm for a lot less government, but it did make me think this week so I thought I'd share it. There's not too much else to talk about anyway, Dugald is still in Seattle and we are grinning and bearing it until he gets back. Actually the girls have been pretty good - I am just tired because I tend to not sleep well while he is away. Maybe we'll camp out in my room tonight just for fun and then I'll sleep better because I won't be worried about not hearing them in the night.

Before I sign off and go do something like school my children, or fix a meal, or vacuum, or whatever, I wanted to share some fantastic news. . . quite unexpectedly immigration in America extended Dugald's green card for another year! Not sure how it all went down since it's been more than a year since he's been in the country and last time he flew through they put him in "time out" or whatever, but we are thankful. It will certainly make things go much more smoothly when we fly over with all the munchkins in June, and hopefully it will mean he can keep it for longer as long as he flys to America once a year. Yay!