dlo@drutx.UUCP (OlsonDL) (02/28/86)
[] >> >> >How >> >company towns controlled every aspect of people's lives and made a profit >> >on every aspect of their lives. >> > >> > tim sevener whuxn!orb >> >> I don't mean to sound flippant. However, done by such a company town, >> it would be called exploitation; done by the State, it would be called >> legislation, regulation, and taxation. Hmmm. >> >> David Olson >> ..!ihnp4!drutx!dlo >1)in the United States so far as I know there are no towns totally > owned and controlled by the State (unless you wish to count > military bases, which actually generally come under separate and > independent municipal jurisdictions) So what? >2)there were no elections to determine either officials or policies > of company towns when they existed. The company, usually owned and > controlled by either one family or one person, determined everything > autocratically. Such is *not* the case with local governments. > Even if they may be controlled by elites, they at least must face > elections. Many machines have lost their power by being voted out > of office. (e.g. Daley's previously invincible machine lost the > mayor's office) > > tim sevener whuxn!orb Tim, what has that got to do with the issue at hand? I don't know of anything about people that is not controlled by government to one extent or another. It controls what we eat and drink and the medications we take. Through licensing, it controls the professions we can employ. It tells us what we can do for a living and how much money we can make and what we can do with that money. It controls our education, communication, and transportation. The only things we can *legally* "choose" are those things that have already been preapproved for us by some government agency. Sound paranoid? Then, name me one thing in your life that doesn't involve government somewhere. We have had elections for years and still government has "controlled every aspect of people's lives" from the time before they are born (through, say, regulations concerning sexual activity) until after they die (through regulations concerning mortuaries, cemetaries, wills, probate, etc), "and made a profit on every aspect of their lives" through income taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes, windfall profits taxes, corporate and business taxes not to mention license fees. Good, bad, or indifferent, government control is here. Having the priviledge of deciding whose butt warms the chairs of mayor, city council, governor, congress people, and president hasn't changed that. Please note, I am not against government per se. Nor am I against elections. I am against the notion that the phrase "government should do for people what they cannot do for themselves" translates into "government must do everything, since people can do nothing". I am against the wholesale contol of peoples lives, no matter the purpose or who is doing it or how they got there. My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. David Olson ..!ihnp4!drutx!dlo "To laugh at men of sense is the privilege of fools". -- Jean de la Bruyere