IL will be seen as a laughing stock by the time Blago is done selling state assets to his biggest contributors.

Daley is already taking heat for a sale that got Chicago a temporary boost, while the foreign owners hiked tolls 25% and are carting the booty off to AU and Spain (in truth, I have no problem with this)

I've called a few legislators here in IL and asked "If these 'assets' are actually able to generate long term cash flow, why not securitize them, transfer them to the $40+ BN in the red pension fund, and start fixing that debacle. Let the 25% increase in tolls fund THAT."

Silence, then the moronic drone about "funding education."

Illinois politicians in both parties are too stupid to live. I pray there is place in hell for their ilk.

I love how you Righties hate the market when iut actually takes effect.

I'm curious to see what happens in ten years after all these assest have been sold off and there's nothing left to pay for spending binge that resulted from the sales. Should be amusing.

(""I pray there is place in hell for their ilk."

I always liked Niven and Pournelle's remake of Dante's Inferno because they added all sorts of updated punishments for modern sins and sinners.)

It's not markets, it's Russian style cronyism and medieval style patents (the buyer of the lottery isn't buying the lottery per se, he's buying a gambling patent which protects him from competition, the exact opposite of a market).

I don't worry about it too much, for the reason Mr. Ortega states.

Just yesterday there was a lot of ragging on libertarians around here. Today we have an article about states acting right out of the Cato/Reason Foundation playbook, and we have OJ proclaiming this is actually his beloved "Third Way" while other conservatives sound just like standard lefties, claiming it's all a scam and worrying that governments won't have enough money later on. Me brain hurts.

It has nothing to do with libertarianism.

AOG:

Build your own road.

That's a bad example there, OJ. We had a guy build his own road and bridge in Richmond, Va. Opened it up to the public as a toll road and made money at it too.

Yes, the market works.

Mr. Judd;

So, the lesson is that markets work, unless the government screws them up because governments stop people from building roads, not markets. Thanks for point out another example of how libertarians are right.

OJ,

If you noticed, I have no problem with the concept of privatization of toll roads or Lotteries.

I don't even mind that outside entities raise prices and make money.

My complaint is that this isn't really privatization, it's a financing scheme for new spending.

The best headline on the issue was "Forget the Lottery, Sell the Schools."

This should address your (and Papaya's) carping.

My idea - which is far more conservative - is to privatize things like the tollway and lottery, but transfer ownership of these new private entities to our bankrupt pension fund (which is Constitutionally mandated to pay every accrued benefit, mind you), and let the pension fund either manage or sell the ownership.

This partially funds a liability that must be funded, and it permanently protects the income stream from any new government spending.

From a policy perspective, this is far far superior to other proposals.

Your hero, King Daley, sold off the income stream, hired more cronies, and just hiked property taxes in Chicago to the Constitutional limit to give to the worst school system in the world.

We live in a different country here in IL. Haiti will soon look good by comparison. But don't worry. They are trying to manufacture a Topinka win just in time to make the stupid party take all the blame for the upcoming largest tax hike in IL history.

That Rove, he's a genius.

Ah, so you're accepting having blown the analysis of the IL election?

No one is stopped from building roads.

"No one is stopped from building roads."

<Manuel>¿Que?</Manuel>

Only someone who lives in a cave and never leaves its Time Zone could make that statement with a straight face. Yes, it's theoretically possible, if you ignore all the screaming, scheming anti-growth and anti-car types. Oh, right....

Nevermind.

Raoul:

Exactly. The government was able to ram through roads even though they were destructive and no one wanted them. Private entities have to deal with normal market forces. Sucks, huh?

Who didn't want roads?

Anyone but government bureaucrats and central planners.