California, not looking so good these days. Or in future days either. Stuck with a crippling deficit, super-majority tax laws, and an unwieldy state legislature, the Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his minority party have strong-armed the Democrats, exchanging our massive debts for massive cuts in state spending. And important state spending at that. Billions from our already struggling education system, our under-funded prison systems and state Health Care, to name a few. But no worries, the Governor has a plan to make that money back.
Introducing: The Great California Garage Sale! Yep, Schwarzenegger has put together a two-day auction (Friday & Saturday) in which the state will sell around 6,000 items – of which are unneeded or unclaimed – on eBay and Craigslist. The big event will feature everything from coat racks to surfboards to used cars. According to the BBC, early bird arrivals can hope to find, “computers, box cutters, binoculars, a belt buckle, a fishing rod and a ceramic heart.” Yep, a ceramic heart. Feeling better?
But the big money grabbers of the event are 15-20 cars that Schwarzenegger has autographed himself. For example, one such car – a 1997 green Ford Taurus (109,305 miles) – is already fetching $2,025 with hours left in the auction. Excellent! You get a cool car (complete with autograph!) and you’re helping the state. It’s a win-win, or so says Schwarzenegger.
“By posting items online, Californians and people from other states and around the world can participate in the Great California Garage Sale. This is a win-win for the state and for shoppers. Together we are eliminating waste and providing great deals in this tough economy.”
Let’s even say every item in this garage sale sells for $2,025 (very, very generous), that’d still only total to $12 million. Which sounds like a lot, but is only 1/2,000 of the state’s current deficit.
I guess we can be expecting a lot more of these then.
Comments
Ben
August 27th, 2009 - 1:22:13 PM
Ahh, don't be so hard on the idea - everyone loves garage sales!
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