Human Beings and frogs are the two creatures in nature that have tremendous power to adjust. Put a frog in a vessel of water and start heating the water. As the temperature of the water rises, the frog is able to adjust its body temperature accordingly. The frog keeps on adjusting with increase in temperature. Just when the water is about to reach boiling point, the frog is not able to adjust anymore. At that point the frog decides to jump out. The frog tries to jump but is unable to do so, because it lost all its strength in adjusting with the water temperature. Very soon the frog dies.
Why was he adjusting so much? What happened with that frog? Why didn’t he come out then? What killed the frog? Many of us would say the boiling water. But the truth is what killed the frog was its his own inability to decide when it had to jump out.
The lesson in this metaphor is that people become gradually adjusted to continuing property tax increases which are incremental but unending. They do not realize the impact until finally they are paying exorbitant amounts due to the dereliction of local officials who have little incentive to change their ways as long as they can pass the cost of their mismanagement along to the taxpayers who by this time have no way out. Or do they?