As does the federal government, but we have learned to cope with it.

Well nobody enjoys to pay tax, but it really depends on how you look at it. Yes we pay a lot of taxes, but we also get many benefits, like good subsidized public transport, good and affordable education, good affordable health care, good social security, a well build and maintained infrastructure, etc. Yes, i don't like to pay tax, but i do like the benefits. So does most Europeans, so we just stick to it. I guess it's just the opposite in the US, where people prefer low taxes and less benefits form taxed payed measures. Neither is right or wrong.

One can also make a good case that inflation is itself a tax. (In which case, Izzy, that whirring noise may well be tax-fleeing ancestors spinning in their graves.)

Bernanke clearly admits this when asked about increasing the money supply by printing U.S. dollars (by the trillions? we're not sure because the Federal Reserve no longer publishes "M3" data on the amount of cash in circulation).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4yBrxmEOkY

I'm thinking bicycle transport may be more viable than horse-based urban delivery, given the most recent news from Washington.

On the lighter side, why stop at delivery functions? Behold, the couch bike:

http://www.bikeforest.com/cb/

The taxi rank (automobiles) is still at the same location 120 years later.

Of course there were still steam trains and electric trams around in these days, plus there was the freedom as a pedestrian to walk down the middle of the street without the fear of being run over.

I say bring back the horse. (the horse sh*t will be good for your garden rubarb anyway)

It would also stop the equivalent of 150 Boeing 747s crashes worth of death and destruction every year in the US as well.

Clop Clop Clop Clop Clop Clop Clop

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang

Clop Clop Clop Clop Clop Clop Clop


A gang member On a horse, doing a drive-by shooting…

If horses come back, I'm getting into vermiculture in a big way.

Amish drive-by.

Those vehicles are from Left to right a Broughum ( pronounced broom),Phaeton and Hansom Cab. The Brougham was the limousine of it's day, the phaeton convertible touring and no lady would ever ride alone in a Hansom.
Notice the trees. Every mature tree in the urban world was planted not for aesthetics, but as practical shade for the many horses. The many old fountains were also practical watering stations.
Glass collectors sometimes find very long necked glasses mistaken for laboratory equipment.These were to serve drinks to the 'whips' who often remained seated on very high seats and couldn't reach down. Those long carriage whips were so expertly handled a whip could kill flies on his horse's backs, or deliver a suprise to street urchins big and small.
The occupants; both whip and passengers were equippped with 'rugs' heavy woolen blankets decorously covering the lower limbs unless really inclement weather came on,pocketknives, oftentimes small defensive handguns- a use considered a LIBERAL political choice then, water or liquor flasks and a spare lantern in the boot along with repair tools in case of mechanical failure.
Notice lastly, those men standing by the vehicles area all professionals; coachmen and footmen. There was a gentility and code in those poorly regulated streets. No texting, unless from portable writing desks a hurried letter to be dispatched by the footboy via a commerical vehicle, music blaring from the hand blown and beveled glass( untinted, but fitted with curtains for privacy)

Well said. Where Social Security & medical care are concerned, I figure I can do a better job looking out for my interests than the government. None of my retirement plans figure on SS being there when I reach retirement age. Either that or the age I can start drawing it will have been pushed back to the day after I've passed away.

Many years ago, someone handed me an OLD NY Times news clipping about the horse waste problem in Manhattan, and that if something wasn't done, there would be something like 12" of "horse exhaust" on the street. Remember, one of the big pruposes of the NY and North Shore Railroad (Now the LIRR Pt Washington branch) was to bring the manure to Little neck bay, and dump it. You know that marshy area north of Northern (and heck, part of what is south.. All horse manure