Tears in Florida

 I spent the dead of winter in Florida, an American subculture. A sizeable portion of American and Canadian elites are moving there along with a segment of population, whose skills allow them to work from home. Primarily, the elites of North America who can afford two, three or more houses. 

Nonetheless, the illustrious governor of Florida (Ron DeSantis) and the illustrious one before him (Rick Scott) have set a policy that allows the wealthy to destroy the environment and forces the middle class—skilled and unskilled workers—all people who get W-2 forms to pay most of the tax. The very wealthy and Canadians, who pay taxes in Canada, seem to think it is OK that they come to the U.S. buy a house, squat for six months and a day and pay no Florida real estate tax. As a result, development is rampant and  the state's infrastructure appalling.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

There is no mass transit to speak of. The roads are often impassible, choked with cars. What passes for mass transit is a couple of bus lines (Flixbus and Red Coach) the former not at all reliable, the latter, iffy and often late. We sat in the “express” lane for high occupancy vehicles for an hour, making the bus over an hour late to Ft. Myers. I was waiting for the eventually late bus with a full view of peeling, moldy parking garage at the Miami International Airport, the inside of which isn’t much better. 

I am probably giving you the erroneous impression that taxpayers/people suffer the most from De Santis-

Scott’s misbegotten policies. By no means. The little turtle trail of tears (below) was probably made by turtle injured or burned when he tried to cross an asphalt road to get to a lake. My niece found him dead against a barrier the developers erected, he tried to tunnel under. 

With a bicycle for transportation, I would often see poor serpents, who, looking for a sunny spot, crawled out of the sparse natural spaces left onto the road or sidewalk and were run over by a car or a couple careless teenagers in a golf cart, or maybe even a motorized scooter.  No, clearly, a fair real estate tax policy in Florida would benefit the people, the turtles, the serpents, nay everybody/thing in whole state.                                                                                                                     

The poor birds are also befuddled and about to lose their place. Above, the remains of a pretty blue and black snake dead on the road. When you look around you and walk on the edges of developments so numerous in Florida, it is hard to keep back the tears.