http://chattanoogapulse.com/newsfeatures/news-feature/beyond-volkswagen-the-future-of-hamilton-county/ Chattanooga's Alternative Weekly Newspaper Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:26:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://chattanoogapulse.com/newsfeatures/news-feature/beyond-volkswagen-the-future-of-hamilton-county/comment-page-1/#comment-100 Andrew Lohr Thu, 28 May 2009 20:55:52 +0000 http://chattanoogapulse.com/?p=3010#comment-100 9 water districts is bad? I seem to recall that when Mayor Kinsey was trying to grab Tennessee-American, one of the 9 districts sold water for about half what the rest charged. If that's still true, and sustainable, and I lived there, I'd oppose consolidation. For the sake of those who do live there, I oppose it now. If I lived next door to that district, I'd like to unhook from my district and hook onto the cheap one. Legalize competition! If it ends up consolidated, fine, as long as competition remains legal. <br> Far too often, the government creates and enforces a monopoly, enriching the monopolizers at the expense of everyone else. It probably made sense to give Tennessee-American a 99-year monopoly so T-A would build a water system for Chattanooga, but the 99 years are up. Make T-A face reality, i.e. competition. Stop shielding their profits; make them earn them (and let them earn them). Stop shielding lawyers' fees; make lawyers compete with their secretaries, who do a lot of the work. And so on--the Institute for Justice (<a href="http://www.ij.org" rel="nofollow">www.ij.org</a>) agenda. 9 water districts is bad? I seem to recall that when Mayor Kinsey was trying to grab Tennessee-American, one of the 9 districts sold water for about half what the rest charged. If that's still true, and sustainable, and I lived there, I'd oppose consolidation. For the sake of those who do live there, I oppose it now. If I lived next door to that district, I'd like to unhook from my district and hook onto the cheap one. Legalize competition! If it ends up consolidated, fine, as long as competition remains legal.
Far too often, the government creates and enforces a monopoly, enriching the monopolizers at the expense of everyone else. It probably made sense to give Tennessee-American a 99-year monopoly so T-A would build a water system for Chattanooga, but the 99 years are up. Make T-A face reality, i.e. competition. Stop shielding their profits; make them earn them (and let them earn them). Stop shielding lawyers' fees; make lawyers compete with their secretaries, who do a lot of the work. And so on–the Institute for Justice (http://www.ij.org) agenda.

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