2001-05-10 - 20:05 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Cerchez la what ?

In all the political manipulations at the present time, now more than ever the Golconda is Money, Big, Big Money and the reasons that favor its use.

Why are so many things being torn down and torn apart ? Money of course and blame along with it. Object of the game is for the money to go where you want it and to point the finger so that someone else will take the blame.

Quick fix for instance, electric power in California. The intricate mating dance of the politicians torn between constituents and realities is a sight to make one hurl. The power companies being forced to sell their electricity for less than it cost to supply it obviously are headed for bankruptcy.

Seems to me that price controls work as dubiously now as Prohibition did when I was a kid.

About time for politicians to educate themselves about the nitty gritty of economics among other things.

In my short lifetime I have read about one move or another which was supposed to be a cure-all for a thorn in our side end up being a giant tree in our side rather the stickery thorn that was there to begin with.

Right now it looks as if our Colorado Congress will go into sudden death overtime on growth control. Hah, a lot of common sense actions will come from that.

Like the ordinary Joe Blow that I am, there is no commonsense solution that I can see. The two horrors that would limit growth are genocide and neutering. If people have children, like we did, that more than replaced the two us, growth will occur. So watta ya gonna do ? put 'em all in a super high rise penitentary ?

If we are at Zero Population Growth, is it because people move to the places they feel they can prosper ? Be safe, be healthy, travel unclogged freeways ? I think some of all of the above is true.

One of the problems I can see is that if growth is limited to six miles from city hall in a town -- there can be nothing to prevent flagpole type settlements like along I-25 north of Denver. Soon it will probably be a town per se from here to Cheyenne. The older towns grow toward I-25 and developers are converting farmland into houses, concrete and blacktop.

If the Legislature comes up with a common sense solution -- will we peons bite the bullet, hitch up our belts and do the necessary ? Not very sure about that either.

It seems to me to be so obvious what is and has been happening for years and years. Now here in Colorado to add to the growth problems is the iffyness of an adequate, pure water supply. Already our front range towns are the vampires bleeding western slope of water. Where are we going to get more ? The Colorado River is more or less pledged to places downstream including the Los Angeles area.

So growth is a huge problem with many hitches and glitches included to make it worse. It looks like to me that the political moves to save pennies today will cost us many dollars in the near future. So here is Bastion, a cohort of Chicken Little, crying, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling," with no idea of what to do about the mess we have made for ourselves.

But do watch the use of everything and pay what is needed rather than what some politician has cut the rate to. Remember the Fram ad I think it was, where the mechanic says, "You can pay me now or you can pay me later." Seems to me that is the way it works.

Money, money, money - Cherchez la- what ? . . . . .

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