Missed the forest (August 6, 2015)
Charles Smith focusses so intently on details in letters by Tamara Alaniz and David Mueller that he missed their points (Math and Assumptions,
Daily Press, August 6, 2015).
What Mrs. Alaniz and Mr. Mueller were trying to emphasize is the folly of the Town of Apple Valley paying up to $200 million to buy something we already have, which in this case is a water utility.
Leaving aside the issue of whether the Town even has the ability to run a water utility properly, given its utter failures to do so in the past, there certainly is no benefit to seizing Apple Valley Ranchos at enormous expense, when it means enriching some bank somewhere at the expense of a well run private enterprise. Too, if eliminating profit is a valid motive or objective for the Town’s endeavors, then what viable business is safe?
Private ownership — including profits for the owners and shareholders — is an essential part of the American system of capitalism. Ever-growing government is a cancer on our once-healthy body politic. Like all cancers, if left unchecked, it will grow until the host is dead.
— Greg Raven is Co-Chair of Apple Valley Citizens for Government Accountability, and is concerned about quality of life issues.