Their's not to reason why - Their's but to do and die

Reason To Lie

Adrian Moore is Vice President of the Libertarian Party think tank, the Reason Foundation http://www.reason.org/. I wrote a letter to Adrian (that follows his letter) after he posted the following letter to Republican State Legislators throughout the USA. Needless to say Adrian never responded to my email.

Dear Representative,

The last 2003 show of ABC's 20/20 news show had a story on how public employee unions are fighting against people who volunteer for the public good. One of the great "Give Me a Break" segments by host John Stossel. (Note: John Stossel is yet another correspondent on the corporate dole who pushes the right-wing agenda of “free markets” as the only cure for all problems real and imagined).

Stossel’s segment is very reminiscent of the fight over privatization, where too often we argue about public employee's "right to their salary" and not the taxpayers' right to the most effective and low cost services. It's a travesty. Do we really think "volunteers" helping the local police, or weekend cleanup-crews helping collect trash in parks is bad public policy? Do we want to create a "right to a public salary"?

Please read the transcript of ABC's 20/20 story. And by the way, Stossel got the idea for the show from Reason.

Dr. Adrian Moore

Vice President

Reason Foundation

January 6, 2004

Adrian:

I love stories such as this one where conservatives and libertarians take an outrageous exception to the norm, and drag it around as evidence of standard practice and gross abuse of the system. The classic example is the story of the old woman who dropped a cup of scalding coffee in her lap at a fast-food restaurant drive-through window and was burned. She then sued the proprietor and received a multi-million dollar settlement. Therefore we must have tort reform! What's interesting is how transnational corporations, and organizations such as Reason, to push tort reform past a misinformed public, exaggerate these stories. (Note: The trial court subsequently reduced the punitive award to $480,000 -- or three times compensatory damages -- even though the judge called the franchise's conduct reckless, callous and willful.) Thanks to tort reform transnational corporations can ravage and pollute any environment and populace they want without having to worry about being sued.

I love your allusion to the need for privatization and what a benefit it will be for the taxpayer. Corporations are the beneficiaries of privatization not the taxpayer. In Los Angeles they privatized the cleaning of the LAX airport to an outside contractor who went and hired migrant laborers at pay so low they had to live in the cars. This outrage was the genesis of the Living Wage movement initiated by the clergy from local parishes.

There's no end to the need for volunteers in the USA where social services and any kind of social safety net is being dismantled everyday. As a volunteer I run the dinner program for the homeless shelter under the auspices of the Interfaith Council, coordinate the local youth athletic leagues, and coach my kids' teams. I'm not taking anyone's job and no one's whining about losing his or her job. However that won't stop pundits such as you, who are on the corporate dole, from hyping manufactured outrages with the goal of dismantling those policies that once made this nation great. As our society degenerates into the haves and the have-nots please wave to me as you ride past in your corporate financed luxury car. I'll be feeding the homeless and helping the kids.

Howard Fallon