I am a very busy boy. I’m over-committed with writing obligations. I want to finish up my book on space exploration and colonization, and publish Defending III. I’ve got to publicize my new book with Tom DiLorenzo criticizing Public Choice. I take on more speeches and interviews than probably I should. I respond to all polite e mail queries, many on this blog. To mix metaphors, I’m like the girl who can’t say No. And yet, I can’t resist adding one more bit to my to do list: registering great disappointment with Terry L. Anderson, and the group he represents, the Property and Environment Research Center at Bozeman, Montana.
When this group started up, I applauded. It was supposed to offer a free market response to our friends on the left, the watermelons (green on the outside, but red on the inside). Instead, it has long been compromising on this mission, muddying the waters, acting like an inside the beltway “libertarian” organization, even though they are far removed, but only geographically, from Washington DC.
What has aroused my ire this time around? It is this, “Happy 100th Birthday, National Parks; Yellowstone could cover its operating budget with a daily fee of $11. Glacier could do so for $7.19” an op ed which appeared in the War Street Journal of August 25, 2016, page A11. When I first looked at the words “Happy 100th Birthday, National Parks” and realized the essay was written by PERC’s Terry Anderson, I was hoping they were tongue in cheek, and he would be calling for the complete privatization of all US national parks. An entire century of park socialism? Surely, it would be time for a move in the direction of private enterprise, private property rights, free enterprise. In the event, I was bitterly disappointed. I sought in vain for the word “privatization” in his writing. Instead, he took on the role of efficiency expert for the state, in the vein of one of his mentors, Milton Friedman. As the subtitle of his essay indicates, he called for a better more efficient pricing policy for these statist enterprises. Terry, c’mon. It is not too late. It is never too late. Read a little Rothbard. Repent. We will forgive you. Try and support some free enterprise ideas. Is privatization of the national parks really too radical to even mention, let alone support?
3:44 pm on August 28, 2016
