Last time I wrote it was about the adverse effects of 40B. I view 40B as the product of an industry lobbyist effort to get around local zoning laws. The stupidity of Mass laws has me once again wanting to pull out of this state. MGL 59 Section 38D demands financial information from apartment owners. Personally I found the questions invasive, un-American and ambiguous to the point of being something, which could not possibly carry the legal perjury tag. I was told I was “irrational” and over reacting. Actually I don’t think so.
The two-page questionnaire collected will of course have to go into a database. That means the cost of computers, perhaps a Windows Vista upgrade plus Office, an internet connection, training seminars and conferences for town assessors plus certified updates and software license subscriptions. Very soon we will have a local form of the IRS. None of this money spent buys police, fire or even brings drivers ed classes back to the high school. It buys make-work for accountants who will later demand I “upgrade” so that I can send them the form “electronically”.
These are the things, which happen when government and business metrics “merge”. I have several themes for a book about recent trends in the American business world. It would start out with the cartoon series Dilbert and his witty sarcastic commentary. It would then go on to illustrate why Dilbert is no longer funny as recent business policies and practices have taken on an increasingly Orwellian/Satanic nature. I do realize by that last statement most people would say, “That’s ridiculous and this guy is just whining about his own personal problems.” I do though hold a degree in business administration. Hoping for something to fall back on when my manufacturing based job goes away I acquired the skill to research and study business concepts. I didn’t like what I found however. Most important is the coming merger of the United States, Canada and Mexico into a sort of European style union by 2010. It’s good for business, they say. Never heard that one? Google search SPPNA, Nascocorridor, deep integration or you can visit www.spp.gov, the governments own official web site on the matter.
The town also says they will keep my financial information “confidential”. Well, in the past year TJ Max and even the government’s own Veterans Administration have defined the new doublespeak definition of “confidential”.
