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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]One could look at Singapore or Switzerland, but they are very small countries.[/quote]

They are also countries with very strong Nanny States that regulate nearly every part of your day to day life. You get fined for EVERYTHING in Switzerland and Singapore.

Here’s a good example: trash bags. In Switzerland, the only trash bags you are allowed to buy are those with a tax-paid tag. Each trash bag costs you around $5 USD in order to ensure that you personally incur the  costs for your waste. If you accidentally place a recyclable item in the waste trash bag, that is also a fine (around $50 USD). Public wastebaskets are also pretty rare in Switzerland. I’ve carried around my garbage (eg, an empty side can) for the better part of a day because there is a real cost ($5 garbage bags) for businesses to provide garbage service to the public.

Americans would be shocked at how well certain counties enforce their rules and laws. That’s the biggest inconsistency with America: we claim to love freedom and capitalism, but we throw a hissy fit when someone tries to make us pay for the externalities we impose upon others. That doesn’t happen in Switzerland or Singapore. You pay for ANY resource you use.[/quote]

That's how they do it in my hometown in NH. Recycling is free, but you have to pay like $3 for every special city-labeled trash bag (you can't use regular Glad bags). Or you can take your trash to the dump yourself and pay a tip fee. So people who don't want to recycle or generate a lot of trash pay a lot more than people who generate very little, unlike my city here in VA where everyone pays the same quarterly solid waste fee that includes trash and recycling.

Of course NH also doesn't have a state income or sales tax. Localities fund schools through property taxes, so people pay like $18,000 a year for a small old house assessed at $250,000, yet the schools are still not very well  funded. There were years we only had art or music once a month in elementary, no foreign languages or JV sports, etc. When people talk about "local control," it makes inequalities much greater than when social costs are spread across entire states or across the country. Small localities just can't finance things like long term care or education at 21st century standards. [/quote]

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