ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996 TAG: 9605140024
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH K. SMITH
WHILE REASONABLE men and women might disagree on the potential benefits and risks of privatizing Roanoke city's trash-collection services, recent remarks by Councilwoman Lynda Wyatt are representative of the antibusiness attitude that many proclaim permeates city government.
In a May 6 article (``Who'll haul trash?''), The Roanoke Times quotes Wyatt as warning city residents to ``beware of private industry offering savings.''
Thus it appears she believes that only a government-controlled economy can provide the goods and services needed by the public. In some circles, this is known as socialism.
And, according to a same-day article in The Wall Street Journal, nothing could be further from the truth. In its article titled ``Economic Freedom Around the World,'' that newspaper said the world's economies are divided into four principal categories: ``Free,'' ``Partly Free,'' ``Mostly Not Free'' and ``Not Free.''
While numbering only 27 out of 191, the economies of the ``Free'' countries produce 81 percent of the world's gross domestic product (with only 17 percent of the world's population).
By comparison, the ``Mostly Not Free'' and ``Not Free'' economies, while numbering 33 of the world's 191 countries (and holding 66 percent of the world's population), produce only 13 percent of the world's gross domestic product.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, a recent World Survey of Economic Freedom, conducted by Freedom House, found that in most nations privatization of state enterprises (along with the lifting of wage and price controls, and removing of other direct restraints on economic life) has become the accepted wisdom.
Wyatt, therefore, should explain her remarks concerning privatization to Roanoke's citizens. Is she or is she not in favor of a free economy, which, as demonstrated by the Freedom House survey, is the surest path to sustained economic growth and development?
Does Wyatt really believe that private businessmen and businesswomen are but wolves in sheep's clothing? Or is she just a pawn of the public-sector labor unions, which are the only unions experiencing any real measure of growth today?
City taxpayers have a right to know the answers to these questions.
Ralph K. Smith of Roanoke is chairman of the Roanoke City Republican Party.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB