Who would've thought our ridiculously high taxes could actually cause more good than harm? Apparently, there are benefits to paying higher taxes after all.

Before diving into it, let me first say that I don't agree with how high our taxes actually are. I'm a firm believer that New Jersey is over-taxed and that we do need to find ways to make living in the Garden State more affordable. But that's a topic for another day.

The point is, that higher taxes do allow for more benefits when it comes to quality of life. One example of this is something I learned of that was referred to as a garbage can monopoly.

Now you might be asking, what the heck is a garbage can monopoly? I wondered the same thing at first, but as it was explained to me, it made sense.

Confused guy
Gpointstudio/Thinkstock
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I first heard this term while on vacation at our cottage in Cape Cod. One of the couples staying in another cottage was from New Hampshire, and they were telling us about this incident when they first moved to the state.

This couple moved from a more urban area where taxes were higher. Prior to moving, they had regular garbage pickup where they just put the garbage out and it gets collected on select days. Nothing out of the ordinary as that's also what we do here in the Garden State. That all changed when they moved to New Hampshire.

The first week they moved, they had a lot of boxes. Makes sense since when you move you pack things up. Since they were moving into a larger place, they also had packages delivered of new furniture during their first week at their new home.

One big perk of moving to New Hampshire was how much lower the taxes are. In fact, their four-story home up there probably would probably cost the same as a one or two-bedroom single-story ranch here in New Jersey. Not to mention the much larger property size up there.

Lower taxes - social share
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Unfortunately, those lower taxes were directly tied to the garbage pickup. As it turns out, where they moved doesn't have regular garbage pickup provided by the town. Instead, it's a private contractor who picks up garbage for the town on his terms. And this is what led to the incident this couple dealt with.

Because they had just moved in and had a lot of boxes, including new furniture, they had a higher volume of garbage. Unfortunately, that higher volume would not fly with the garbage man.

The contracted garbage man went out of his way to tell them it was too much garbage and that it was not allowed. He also refused to take any garbage at all until the volume was reduced.

Cat Left with Garage in Ocean Township (Ocean)
(Associated Humane Popcorn Park Shelter)
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And he wasn't nice about it either. From what we were told, this guy was particularly nasty. But since garbage pickup was dictated on his terms, they were forced to hang on to their garbage until he decided to come and pick it up.

Even worse, he wouldn't take anything at all that first week. They also had problems with this guy the following week as well. As I learned from our vacation neighbors, it's a monopoly up there with this one company, which is where the term garbage can monopoly came from.

Apparently, there was no dump to bring the garbage to either, meaning this person was free to call all the shots on his term. And since the town had no control over it, they were forced to comply with his ridiculous demands. It's the unfortunate side of very low taxes sometimes.

Hasbro Announces New Monopoly Playing Figure
Getty Images
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The many luxuries they cover can easily be overlooked and taken for granted, especially here in a state like New Jersey. So before we go complaining too much about our taxes, be glad we don't have to worry about things like a garbage can monopoly.

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