10 thoughts of mine

By MICHAEL HALEY

1. Napa County is edging closer and closer to shutting down all major and some not so major development projects and if we become the County of No growth that will hurt us over the long haul.

2. The reason California is being hurt economically out of proportion to its economic resources compared to the rest of the country is that the level of psychological entitlement here is also the highest in the country. You can only feed off your neighbors so long before everyone gets hurt.

3. The time is coming soon in California where we will be forced to make major out of the box changes to what we do even though for years now people have said there is no way you can do that.

4. Prop 13 ought to be changed for fairness. The date of assessed value ought to be moved up to 1990 with an exception for elderly on low fixed incomes. But let’s not forget that the elderly are the wealthiest demographic group and they are getting the biggest benefit from Prop 13. And then we can lower income taxes.

5. Partisanship is dead. Both the Democrats and Republicans are right about some things, and wrong about some things. The sooner we recognize that and seek balance the better off we will be.

6. We don’t know as much as we think we do and we need to have some humility. A lot of things happen out of the blue, like the mortgage meltdown. Fortunately good things happen out of the blue too, and something out of the blue is going to solve this recession. I predict cold fusion.

7. There is a rougher road ahead than people realize, but there is brighter future than most realize as well. Americans are incredibly resilient and inventive along with being hard workers. We will survive and prosper despite all our problems.

8. People are a lot more biased than they realize. Beliefs literally cause your brain chemistry to change, and your perceptions are controlled by your brain. It is possible that you can literally not see or hear what is right in front of your face.

9. Obama is a lot better than people yet realize.

10. As much as we are self centered and entitled, we are also incredibly caring and loving and in the end even the yahoos are going to do the right thing — well, enough of them to turn the tide anyway. :)

Michael Haley is president of the Napa Valley Taxpayers Association. He blogs weekdays at NapaValleyRegister.com on a variety of local, state and national issues. He can be reached at michael@napablogger.com

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