I don’t like taxes much because I often feel they don’t give me my money’s worth. Let me share a story to make my point.
There’s this manhole near my place that’s been getting louder over the years. From a thud, it turned into a loud CLACK CLACK with every passing car. So, I called to report it on June 3.
“Can I take your name and number, sir?” the operator asked.
“Sure, just fix the manhole, please. Thanks!” I replied.
A month later, still CLACK CLACK. “Hi, calling about the noisy manhole,” I said.
“We have your report from a month ago. Someone will look into it,” the operator assured.
Little did I know, fixing this manhole would be like watching paint dry!
Two months after that call, still CLACK CLACK. I started reminding myself every week to call. I even got my neighbor to call when she could. After 15 weeks of no progress, I started calling under different names—Fred, Barry, Joe, you name it—just to get some action.
Calling the city became part of my weekly routine, before lunch, after work, whenever I heard that clacking. Do we need a disaster before they do something? It was ridiculous!
After 48 calls over 18 months, they finally fixed it! Hallelujah! Am I crazy for persisting? Maybe. But when I’m paying tens of thousands in taxes every year, I expect a noisy manhole to be fixed in a reasonable time. They just tarred over it one evening, and now it’s already coming off. Guess we’ll go through this again soon.
Don’t give up on making the city work for your money! Governments are slow, but if you push enough, you can win. My manhole saga shows how inefficient government can be. We need to fix this system so everyone feels the pain and we can cut waste for a better future.
