DEAR EDITOR:
Colliding railroads, colliding social orders, and Gilroy is
ground zero!
DEAR EDITOR:
Colliding railroads, colliding social orders, and Gilroy is ground zero! How important is this issue? Well, Transportation Secretary Mineta said, while he was chairman of the Surface Transportation Committee in the House of Representatives: “The crucial question in transportation today is ‘What should government do, and what should it leave to others?’ ”
So, tell me when the for-hire carriage of passenger business became part of our “infrastructure?” Roads, bridges, tunnels, aqueducts, sewers, canals, ports, dams, and even airports and space launching sites are part of our government “infrastucture,” but not business enterprise. If transport business is government-owned, where do we draw the line? Buses? Trains? Planes? Trucks? Cars? Bikes? Rollerskates?
How about real estate, personal property, agriculture, manufacturing, retail, wholesale, professions like medicine, law? Is government superior than private enterprise?
Look at California’s disastrous foray into electricity and tell me you think that our public servants are better at business operations. At Supervisor Gage’s investiture I handed him a copy of Professor Donahue’s “The Privatization Decision: Public Ends, Private Means,” a copy of which I had mailed to the Honorable Leon Panetta when he was chief of staff in the Clinton White House.
You see I agree with Secretary Mineta – this is the crucial question for us, for our town, county, state and Nation. Remember, to calculate Tax Freedom Day in California you must factor in the State Supreme Court’s decision in Sinclair Paint Co. v. State Board of Equalization (a fee is not a tax).
We need smaller government, not more socialism by redefining “infrastructure” to include traditional business pursuits. Did you ever ask VTA’s leaders how many empty seats the taxpayers pay to transport around Gilroy, across Santa Clara County? I have, and our leaders refuse to answer, probably because they are too embarrassed by the truth in transportation, and don’t want to offend the public-sector union members who milk VTA of the tax subsidies we waste on it. We would better govern ourselves by allowing the Invisible Hand of Adam Smith to provide our goods and service needs than suffer the Iron Fist of Karl Marx.
Business enterprise, including carriage of people and goods, is not part of our “infrastructure,” but if we let it become so, then we will have doomed future generations to the same fate as befell the USSR. Will our leaders in Gilroy guide us toward more Marxist-Leninist activity, or return us to the America of our grandfathers? Caveat Viator!
Joe Thompson, Gilroy
Submitted Wednesday, July 9 to
ed****@****ic.com
