Subject: Cato/Bush wants Total Land Privatization !!! (Reuss).. Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 161813 -0600 (CST) From: "Roy L. Beavers"To: emfguru -------------------------------------------------- ........This ought to be enough to put an end to the Bush candidacy..... Roy Beavers (EMFguru) roy@emfguru.com .....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness..... NEW!!! Website ...................People are more important than profits................. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 23:06:58 +0100 From: Christoph Reuss To: rbeavers@llion.org Subject: Fwd: Cato/Bush wants Total Land Privatization !!! -------- Original Message -------- From: Interhemispheric Resource Center Subject: [EcoTalk] How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands Resent-From: ecotalk@earthsystems.org To: envlawprofs@lists.uoregon.edu This is rather frightening. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++==== >Below is the Executive Summary of a new report from the Cato Institute >titled: "How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands." This report recommends >the complete privatization of ALL public lands in America. ALL lands, means >all National Forests, all National Parks, all Military lands, all >Wilderness, all everything !!!! > >One could dismiss this report as a fantasy of the reactionary right-wing, >except for one important point. Its principle author, Terry L. Anderson, has >been hired by Presidential candidate George W. Bush to serve as his public >lands policy advisor. > >If Bush is elected President, this privatization scheme will be more than >just a bad dream. It will become a very real nightmare. > >Scott > >PS.... Terry Anderson's Political Economy Research Center recently published >a second report --- that one titled: "Paying to Play: The Fee Demonstration >Program." > >Needless to say, that report touts recreation user fees as an important >component of the privatization agenda. (see http://www.perc.org/ps17pr.htm ) > > >----------quoted from Cato Institute ---- > >http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-363es.html > >Cato Policy Analysis No. 363 December 9, 1999 > >How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands >by Terry L. Anderson, Vernon L. Smith, and Emily Simmons > >Executive Summary > >Fully a third of the land area of the United States is owned by >the federal government. Although many Americans support the >preservation of those lands, analysts on the left and the right >agree that the federal government has done an exceedingly poor >job of stewarding those resources. Indeed, the failure of >socialism is as evident in the realm of resource economics as it >is in other areas of the economy. > >Four criteria should guide reform efforts: land should be >allocated to the highest-valued use; transaction costs should be >kept to a minimum; there must be broad participation in the >divestiture process; and "squatters' rights" should be protected. >Unfortunately, the land reform proposals on the table today fail >to meet some or all of those criteria. > >Accordingly, we offer a blueprint for auctioning off all public >lands over 20 to 40 years. Both environmental quality and >economic efficiency would be enhanced by private rather than >public ownership. Land would be auctioned not for dollars but for >public land share certificates (analogous to no par value stock >certificates) distributed equally to all Americans. Those >certificates could be freely transferred at any time during the >divestiture period and would not expire until after the final >auction. Land would be partitioned into tracts or primary units, >and corresponding to each tract would be a set of distinct, >separable, elemental deed rights. Any individual with a >documented claim to rights defined by those deeds, however, would >be assigned the appropriate deed or deeds. Once divested, tract >deed rights would be freely transferable. > > >Full Text of Policy Analysis No. 363 (PDF, 25 pgs, 160 Kb) >http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa363.pdf > >© 1999 The Cato Institute > > > Bill Willers Biology Dept., University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh 800 Algoma Blvd. Oshkosh, Wisconsin, U.S.A. 54901 Phone: (920)424-3074 Fax: (920)424-1101 willers@uwosh.edu SWAN's website: http://www.superiorwild.org "I have no ideology. I worship only at the altar of economic pragmatism." --Alden W. Clausen, President of the World Bank, 1985 Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com