I just got an email from neighbors who went to a city meeting which discussed widening the large street my building is on. I face a side street that's quiet, but the front gates are on a fairly well-traveled street here near Santa Monica. They've been talking about widening this street for about 25 years and nothing's come of it so I was dismayed that it's being brought up again. Here is part of the email my neighbor sent me. Catch the part that really caught my attention?
There
are two plans proposed for the widening -- one including bike lanes and one
without bike lanes. One of the proposals includes adding a center turn
lane. Of course, there is always the option of not doing any
widening. This is as a result of a large grant being
offered by the Federal Government to do the widening.
Really? A LARGE GRANT? The Federal Government wants my street wider? What, because they're so flush they don't know what to do with our money? Is this amazing, or what?
The Federal Government? Why, because of the BIKE LANE? I'll bet that's it. GREEN, dontcha know. (very few ride bikes around here, by the way)
Typical. The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS SENDING MONEY TO MY NEIGHBORHOOD TO COMPLETELY DISRUPT THE AREA FOR A YEAR OR SO JUST TO WIDEN MY LITTLE OL' STREET. Isn't that precious? :-)
Z
5 comments:
The liberals will now explain to you how jobs are being created...Bastiat is rolling over in his grave.
Andie
Andie, I had never heard of Bastiat until you wrote it here and I looked him up. I read this and found it so provocative and TRUE:
"Negative railroad
A famous section of Economic Sophisms concerns the way that tariffs are inherently counterproductive. Bastiat posits a theoretical railway between Spain and France that is built in order to reduce the costs of trade between the two countries. This is achieved, of course, by making goods move to and from the two nations faster and more easily. Bastiat demonstrates that this situation benefits both countries' consumers because it reduces the cost of shipping goods, and therefore reduces the price at market for those goods.
However, each country's producers begin to criticize their governments because the other country's producers can now provide certain goods to the domestic market at reduced price. Domestic producers of these goods are afraid of being outcompeted by the newly viable industry from the other country. So, these domestic producers demand that tariffs be enacted to artificially raise the cost of the foreign goods back to their pre-railroad levels, so that they can continue to compete.
Bastiat raises two significant points here:
Even if the producers in a society are benefited by these tariffs (which, Bastiat claims, they are not), the consumers in that society are clearly hurt by the tariffs, as they are now unable to secure the goods they want at the low price at which they should be able to secure them.
The tariffs completely negate any gains made by the railroad and therefore make it essentially pointless.
To further demonstrate his points, Bastiat suggests that, rather than enacting tariffs, the government should simply destroy the railroad anywhere that foreign goods can outcompete local goods. Since this would be just about everywhere, he goes on to suggest that this government should simply build a broken or "negative" railroad right from the start, and not waste time with tariffs and rail building."
Talk about a metaphor for SO MUCH that could have been saved...
It's like with the gov't today that keeps rushing into bailouts, investing in companies which fall apart in 2 years because it wasn't through through, a health care bill passed without people knowing what's in it, etc etc..
Thanks...fascinating fellow and I wish he was alive and talking today.
More of Bastiat that could be said today "The law becomes perverted when it punishes one's right to self-defense in favor of another's acquired right to plunder."
I purchased a book entitled, "The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible" , by Ken Schoolland, from the Laissez Faire Book Store when Gracie was born. She has already read it and has a better grasp of free market principles than many adults (liberals) who post their erudite rhetoric on blogs such as yours. It is a simple concept. I really don't understand how they fail to grasp it.
I am so happy you admire Frederic Bastiat as much as I do!
"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
~Frederic Bastiat
Andie
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