More land could be added to Monkey Junction annex proposal

Taking care of someone else's child is not the same as having one yourself. If you can afford a child, or 3 or 4 or 5, then you shouldn't be condemned for doing so

...but we will not try any of them. Too many people are protecting their own rice-bowl. Too many people are total suckers. Too many people can't separate that whole issue of what is God's and what is Caeser's. Here's a few I'd like to adopt, though not one of them has an ice-cube's chance in Hades: * Stop shielding the poor from BEING poor. If you're going to be on public dole, you're not going to have cable TV, a cell phone, a car, or any other luxury. The poor in this country live TOO well. They are never hungry, they never want for a single NECESSITY. Accordingly, we have removed the incentives for them to better themselves and improve their life. * Stop subsidizing personal life choices through our system of taxation or direct subsidies. Start "walking the walk" as far as true equality. Adopt a flat tax or The Fair Tax, without that silly "pre-bate." No additional deductions for children. No difference in your taxes if you own or rent. No joint taxes, everything individual. You made X, you give us Y percent. Every single American contributes to the support of this country. End Medicaid completely. * Repeal the Hyde Amendment and start offering free abortions to anyone at all. One caveat? Tubal ligation during the third abortion. Free vasectomies to any male who asks. * Rework Medicare so that it is a program designed to make life comfortable, but does not extend life to the point of fiscal idiocy. Cheap or even free drugs, simple preventative treatment to make life as comfortable as possible, but no idiocy such as chemotherapy or multiple bypasses on seventy-nine year-olds, as they wanted to do on my mother when she was that age. Doing a bypass on an eighty-year old is like rebuilding the engine on a '74 Vega. What's going out next week? As former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm said, "We have a duty to die."(And simply saying that destroyed his political career.) * Make Social Security voluntary for anyone with a confirmed, guaranteed pension (such as military and federal retirees) or people able to prove that they will never need it. We won't do any of these things, because we're not a hard people. We're soft. We're "nice guys" heading for financial ruin. We can't look a person in the eye and say, "You're old. You're going to die." "You shouldn't have had that child. How are you going to feed her or pay for her medical care? We're not." "It's better that you end this pregnancy now, rather than bring another mouth into the world with no way to feed it." While the Republicans are nearly as bad in their own way it is your party that has, since Lyndon Baines Johnson, fostered the "breeder mentality" to proliferate and enlarge the welfare state. As far as politics goes, it has finally paid off for you. As a nation we are capable of doing NOTHING to stop entitlements from exploding. We're even talking about creating a new, fourth entitlement. No...we can only be hard on the productive, successful members of society by raising their taxes...and likely soon, "means testing" Social Security. What do we do when the well runs dry? What do we do in 2040, when the interest on our national debt exceeds our annual income tax revenue? What do we do in 2042 when Medicare and Social Security costs exceed our annual income tax revenues? Just how far can you raise taxes without destroying our entire economic system? WHERE is all this money coming from, and why do 536 ostriches in Washington have their heads buried in the sand, pretending these problems don't exist? (I could also save a few trillion over the next decade with a re-vamp of DOD and getting us to move toward a system of user fees rather than draining general revenue to support niche concerns. I'm telling you, if you people would make me Emperor, we could get this thing turned around in ten years....but you won't do that, either....so good luck to all of you. I'm insulating my butt as best I can.)

...if that poor, predominantly Black neighborhood off Carolina Beach Road EVER got hooked up to city water? I recall reading (many years ago) how they were in the very first area to be annexed as the city moved South and even though ten years had expired, the city had never run water or sewer lines to them because of the cost required to meet the environmental regulations. Annexation and city taxes - lots more money for absolutely nothing.

Well said, Commonsense, and thank you. It's a money-grab from start to finish. It isn't enough that people from outside the city limits support those businesses. It isn't enough that county dwellers provide employers with labor and resources. Now we are expected to be absorbed into a mis-managed gov't entity and be happy for the "priviledge". WilmingtonMAJ, I also want to thank you for making my mind up for me. Your posts really have illustrated the sheer irresponsibility and ignorance of this proposal, and I will stand firmly against it. Furthermore, I will from here forward, be taking my business elsewhere, and spend my money outside of city limits.

To GET to the airport, Mayfaire and Wrighstville Beach you go THROUGH Wilmington. If you would like to boycott us...stay OUT of our city then!