So, you agree with me that Progress is ugly and unnecessary?

For the record, I did say I am not against everything new. Nor did I say that I am against the internal combustion engine, fossil fuels, private automobiles, or free enterprise. I said I was against abusive practices in industry. I do not “prefer the ‘regressive’ policies of the left.”

A person can be a Libertarian or Conservative and oppose polluting, toxic chemicals in consumer products, mistreating employees, and government intervention into the economy except for what is necessary to protect the public. There is a Libertarian-Conservative way of doing these things, or could be if people who say they oppose big government solutions would say they think property rights are reciprocal, like Liberty.

Meaning that the rights of developers and real-estate investors are no greater than the rights of the people who are already here. Industrial development does not belong in residential neighborhoods, or even anywhere near them. It is not a sign of prosperity to ruin people’s lives so someone else can make a buck. New development should always be beneficial to the existing neighborhood.

Crony capitalism is not a free market system because it creates a special class of favored industries and corporations. That is against the principles of free trade where all participants are on a level playing field. Liberty is not about doing whatever you want without regard to others. It is about doing whatever you want as long as it causes no harm to others.

“Liberty is a power to do as we would be done by.”
John Adams, 1819

Merry Christmas!

So “Progress has destroyed most of its charm”?
Yeah, that progress is a bad thing all right. We NIMBY’s prefer the “regressive ” policies of the left. Back to the caves, you people!
No carbon, no cars, no Co2, no jobs, no industry, no freedom, nothing but government to make our decisions for us.
Interesting the retired fire chief in the story is retiring to 70 acres of forested serenity in the Sierras. I’m thinking its probably to get away from NIMBY idiots in the urban areas trying to direct everyone else’s lives. Hell, that’s why I’m up here in the Sierras too. We call it freedom to make choices as we desire-not you.

America had a free market back in the old days before industry was given leave to run roughshod over everybody and everything else.

The housing crisis is a fake emergency. And, no matter what anybody says, California has no need to build anything in places where Mother Nature has all the high cards.

I guess if we took your advice there is no place in California to build homes.
But we sure appreciate your free market, freedom and liberty loving comments!
(Whew! …what a nut job!)

California is not a perpetually-expanding Paradise that can absorb an unlimited number of people and our paraphernalia. Local officials are addicted to tax revenue, they need a Twelve-Step group, not another fix. The Fire Chief is an enabler, and what he is offering is a formula for obtaining more fixes without the guilt.

He blames the people for the fires. Well, that’s an easy one. Either accidentally or on purpose, hardly any of the huge fires was started by Nature. But, he forgets that if a lot of fires are started accidentally by people doing things with their stuff, it means some public officials somewhere said they could be where they are doing what they did.

And, now that we are being told there is a housing shortage, what excuse can there be for failing to approve a new project?

I think it is time for a Reality Check and an Attitude Adjustment. Just say No! to housing in the wilderness, housing on the hillsides, housing in the flood plains, housing on the Earthquake Faults, housing on the cliffs, housing by the seashore, housing next to ballfields, housing next to airports, housing next to industrial projects, etc.

Unlimited Growth is not a realistic model for a mature economy, I don’t care what anyone says. There is a point at which the acquisition of wealth becomes a disease, not a productive economic activity.

No, I am not a socialist. I am for free trade and free markets, but not for giving giant corporations special dispensation to wreck our lives.

Thank you.