When the city or the state needs more money they will always come looking to the pockets of the people to foot the bill. In many cases they might outright confiscate private personal property for their own selfish gain, under one self-serving piece of legislation or another.

Just recently, a study found that several metro Atlanta cities, Doraville, Morrow, Clarkston, and Riverdale had been issuing excessive fines and fees in an effort to allegedly increase their own revenue pool.

The study investigated the above average revenues that had been collected by these regions, money that was coming in linked to various fines and fees.

It's alleged that these regions generated roughly 14 to 25 percent of revenues from those fines and fees to help fund various municipal and court operations.

The amount that they had been collecting was said to have far outpaced what was seen coming into other similarly-sized regions of the state. Other cities were seeing around 3 percent of their budgets coming from such fines.

By operating in such a fashion, those local governments are essentially using their power to enforce various rules in an effort to pursue profit for the city rather than place safety and protection of the public as a top priority.

A city representative has since responded to the recent study and suggested that it doesn't accurately capture the most current revenue stream for the government.

Still, the Institute for Justice which is behind the study, asserts that the cities mentioned are still well above the average 3 percent for revenue streams coming in from those fees and fines. The IJ has also teamed up with several individuals who have sued the city over those excessive tickets and fines.

The Supreme Court has previously ruled that local governments are strictly prohibited from imposing excessive fines against the people.

But you can arguably still find them doing it all over the country regularly. There are many individuals who have had to face tens of thousands of dollars in fines, the potential of losing their homes entirely, over victimless actions such as uncut grass or dirty pools, having gardens in their front yard, and so on.

Is this what an abundance of freedom looks like?

The government on various levels has been able to confiscate tens of billions of dollars from the people in just one year alone thanks to those fines that are being issued.

The income that they are bringing into their own pockets, from the people that they claim to be looking after, has grown by more than 40 percent over the last decade.

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