The Lawn Parking Hobgoblin in Indianapolis and City Government's Solution to a Non-Problem
In the 1920s, H.L. Mencken said "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
Exhibit A:
INDIANAPOLIS -- "Drivers attending the Indiana State Fair or a major sporting event downtown may sometimes opt to grab a parking spot in someone's yard rather than pay higher prices in a parking lot, but some city officials think people who provide parking spots should get a permit first. City leaders are proposing that residents pay a $75 fee (per event) if they want to turn their yards into parking lots."
HT: Matt Bixler
HT: Matt Bixler
4 Comments:
This is a money grab by greedy politicians.
I say force politicians to get a permit [read referendum] before they issue any permits.
$50 a day and $180 dollars a year. Well they certainly learned a lesson, but I don't think that it was the one that their mother had in mind.
I don't appreciate H.L.
I don't understand his points, even if I want to laugh with them.
For example, aren't all "hobgoblins" imaginary? I haven't searched the term, and easily could be wrong, but it seems the term is meant as an intensifier, not literally, in which case H.L. just doesn't use words like I like words to be used.
Another instance of this is his use of the term "all." "All" used to mean "all" and for anyone to claim "all" government exists because of delusion, massive delusion, isn't accurate. Sometimes government exists to fulfill human ambition toward the divine, such as happened in Amerioa circa 1776.
Thanks for hosting this comment.
David Beito shows what happened last time cities and states went broke. I predict that we might see something similar and a similar response. To fix the tax problem FDR ended prohibition and got reelected for it. I suggest that the next president will try the same approach by ending the War on Drugs.
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