What is the Biggest Problem for Society: Government or Business?

There's no doubt in my mind that the government is the biggest problem with our society.

Except for those many times when unregulated corporations are the biggest problem with our society. Here is Exhibit A these days, Boeing's conduct regarding the 737 Max, resulting in 346 deaths. . Tomorrow it will be some more gross misconduct or price gouging by Big Pharma, or Wall Street banks fleecing the taxpayers.

Rather than pushing and pulling on this false dichotomy, can we agree on this compromise: Unchecked power operating outside of meaningful sunshine is the biggest problem with our society?

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Sunshine Petition Filed Against the City of St. Louis Regarding Secretive Efforts to Privatize Lambert International Airport

Here's the full copy of the Sunshine Law Petition filed against STL City Officials today. Here are the exhibits to the Petition.   Here is the press release issued by Mark Pedroli and the Sunshine and Government Accountability Project.

Alan Hoffman is the Plaintiff and Attorney Mark Pedroli drafted the Petition. This was excellent work by Alan and Mark for making and documenting the information requests and now for pursuing this in court.

If airport privatization were not such a terrible deal for taxpayers, the City wouldn't be working so hard to keep so much of this information secret.

Continue ReadingSunshine Petition Filed Against the City of St. Louis Regarding Secretive Efforts to Privatize Lambert International Airport

Not-For-Sale Advocates Shed Light of Suspicious Privatization Process Regarding Lambert St. Louis Airport

Last night, the "Not for Sale" (anti-privatization) group sponsored a town hall meeting at the St. Louis Central Branch Library. The meeting was well attended, as you can see from the photo in the comments

I'm posting all of my notes here, given that this a critical community issue and that this "public" process is rife with secrecy. The entire process also reeks of conflicts of interest.

But tonight was a chance for the good guys to talk, and I learned a lot. Notably, none of tonight's speakers was being paid to take the positions that they were taking. This is in stark contrast to positions being taken by members of the airport Working Group. None of the speakers criticized the current public airport management. Many went out of their way to compliment the way the airport commission is running the airport. And how could that be otherwise, based on the following statistics (reflecting events from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018):

  • 29% increase in enplanments
  • 6.2% more departures
  • 20% decrease in cost per passenger
  • 5.9% more overall passengers
  • 30% debt paid off ($276 million) new line
  • $6.68 million paid into the city's general revenue fund.


The meeting started with an announcement by a representative of Congressman Lacy Clay. Congressman Clay supports a public vote regarding any privatization effort regarding the airport.

The next speaker was Dr. Ray Mundy, the Executive Director of the Airport Ground Transportation Association. Dr. Mundy stated the following: He has never seen a process like this in 40 years. For instance, $1 million is available to conduct a study of feasibility or privatization. The money is offered by the FAA. The working group didn't even apply for this money, suggesting they don't want to know what such a study would show.

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Americans pretend there are free markets in many industries

I figured it out myself when I traveled. The airfares in Europe and the Middle East are surprisingly affordable. I bought asthma inhalers in Lebanon, Turkey and Spain for about $3 each. Equivalent medicine in the US costs $85 per inhaler, $120 if you don't have insurance.

I was primed to notice an excellent Article in The Atlantic, "The U.S. Only Pretends to Have Free Markets." Here's an excerpt:

Internet service, cellphone plans, and plane tickets are now much cheaper in Europe and Asia than in the United States, and the price differences are staggering. In 2018, according to data gathered by the comparison site Cable, the average monthly cost of a broadband internet connection was $29 in Italy, $31 in France, $32 in South Korea, and $37 in Germany and Japan. The same connection cost $68 in the United States, putting the country on par with Madagascar, Honduras, and Swaziland. American households spend about $100 a month on cellphone services, the Consumer Expenditure Survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates. Households in France and Germany pay less than half of that, according to the economists Mara Faccio and Luigi Zingales.

Continue ReadingAmericans pretend there are free markets in many industries

No information, no problem. See no evil.

If you're worried about the effects of pesticides on honey bees, simply stop collecting information to solve the problem. That's the position of the Trump administration.

On the heels of the EPA's June approval of a bee-killing pesticide, the White House said it would stop collecting data on declining honey bee populations—potentially making it impossible to analyze the effects of the chemical and the administration's other anti-science policies on the pollinators.

The next step might be to stop collecting criminal justice statistics, statistics related to failing schools to "solve" those problems too. That strategy would be in line with our tendency to start wars based on faulty intel and lies. And we've already cut the budget for gathering climate data and analysis. No information, no problem.  See no evil.

Continue ReadingNo information, no problem. See no evil.