2
Wednesday, January 31, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I
N I
O
N
Jonah
Goldberg
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be
no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.
To the Editor:
I was confused when I read Jim Cornelius’s
article, “Sisters explores regulated marijuana
commerce,” in the January 17, 2018 edition.
When I went into the Deschutes County Clerk’s
website and looked up the election archives,
in fact, I didn’t see any election related to
marijuana in 2015 AT ALL, as was quoted,
“In 2014, voters in Sisters rejected a measure
that would have allowed medical marijuana in
Sisters. However, in 2015, voters in the City
precinct showed a 51 percent approval of the
state measure legalizing medical marijuana,
according to City Manager Brant Kucera.”
But we need to look at all of Sisters Country.
The precinct for Sisters City proper is #30,
and in the general election of November of
2014, Measure 9-101, 57.62 percent of the
city opposed medical marijuana within City
limits, and 42.38 percent were in favor. In the
state-wide measure for recreational marijuana,
Measure 91, also in 2014, Sisters precinct #30
voted in favor 521 to 498 opposed; a very small
margin. But that is only a part of the story. If
one takes into account all of The Nugget’s cir-
culation, or Sisters School District, places like
Cloverdale, Plainview, Highway 126, Black
Butte Ranch, Tollgate, Crossroads and even
Camp Sherman, the numbers are 2,907 in favor
and 3,548 opposed.
That is 641 more no votes than yes, for rec-
reational marijuana.
Please remember that Sisters is our town,
too.
Our officials have the duty — I’d say
responsibility — to do the will of the people.
Jayne Simmons
s
s
s
To the Editor:
The “In Our America” signs seem to be very
popular here in Sisters, and, I assume, across
the state. In an effort to better understand the
sign’s message, I’d like to break down some of
the sign’s statements, ask some questions and
perhaps get more clarity.
Black Lives Matter: I think this speaks to
a perspective that black Americans have been
mistreated by law enforcement. Does race-
based rhetoric really empower people or does
it merely foster/nurture racial divisiveness and
a crippling sense of victimization?
See KLETTERSK on page 20
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Monday
Sunday
Partly Sunny
Chance Rain
Chance Rain
Partly Sunny
Partly Sunny
Partly Sunny
42/30
49/36
52/34
54/34
53/33
51/40
The Nugget Newspaper, LLC
Website: www.nuggetnews.com
442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759
Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com
Editor In Chief: Jim Cornelius
Production Manager: Leith Easterling
Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken
Graphic Design: Jess Draper
Postmaster: Send address changes to
The Nugget Newspaper,
P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759.
Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon.
Accounting: Erin Bordonaro
Proofreader: Pete Rathbun
Owner: J. Louis Mullen
The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area.
Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55.
Published Weekly. ©2018 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which
appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for
information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition-
ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently
available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts.
The Trump administration
is now moving to put some
teeth on its promise to punish
“unfair” trade from China and
other countries. Last week it
imposed punitive tariffs on
Chinese and South Korean
manufacturers of washing
machines and solar panels.
The move is ill advised on
its own, but you can be sure
this is just the beginning of
renewed debate over the ben-
efits of free trade, with any
number of once-passionate
opponents of the government
“picking winners and losers”
rushing to defend the sagacity
of “America first” economics.
One of the most difficult
distinctions for people in gen-
eral and politicians in particu-
lar to grasp is the difference
between being pro-free mar-
ket and pro-business.
There are many reasons
for this confusion. For politi-
cians, the key reason is that
businesspeople are constitu-
ents and donors, while the
free market is an abstraction.
Also, because capitalists tend
to lionize successful people,
we assume they share our
philosophical commitments.
But it is a rare corporate titan
who favors a free market if
doing so is bad for his or her
bottom line.
Adam Smith recog-
nized this in his canonical
1776 work, “The Wealth
of Nations.” “People of the
same trade seldom meet
together, even for merriment
and diversion,” he wrote,
without the conversation end-
ing “in a conspiracy against
the public, or in some con-
trivance to raise prices.”
This doesn’t mean that
capitalists are evil; it means
they’re human beings.
Virtually every profession
you can think of has a ten-
dency to dig a moat around
itself to protect its interests
and defend against com-
petition. A few years ago,
the American Academy of
Pediatrics came out against
affordable health care for
children. Retail chains like
Walmart and CVS started
opening in-store clinics to
provide affordable basic
health care like vaccinations.
The pediatricians rightly
saw this as a threat to their
monopoly over kids’ medical
care.
Similarly, most teachers
like kids, but that doesn’t stop
teachers unions from doing
everything they can to protect
themselves from competition
or accountability. Indeed,
unions, by design, are con-
spiracies against the public to
defend the wages and perks of
their members. NIMBYism
(Not in My Backyard) is
another manifestation of this
phenomenon.
As I argue in my forth-
coming book, “The Suicide
of the West,” this tendency to
form coalitions, aristocracies
or guilds to protect common
interests is simply an evolved
fact of human nature, existing
in every society through all of
history. The founding fathers
understood this — they called
it the threat of “faction”—
which is why the Constitution
was designed to prevent any
one group of interests or
institutions from being able
to attain concentrated power.
Smith understood this too.
After noting how people of
the same trade conspire to
raise prices, he added: “It is
impossible indeed to prevent
such meetings, by any law
which either could be exe-
cuted, or would be consistent
with liberty and justice. But
though the law cannot hin-
der people of the same trade
from sometimes assembling
together, it ought to do noth-
ing to facilitate such assem-
blies; much less to render
them necessary.”
What both Smith and the
founders understood is that
such conspiracies can only
last with the help of gov-
ernment. As the economist
Joseph Schumpeter argued,
in a system of free competi-
tion, monopolies cannot long
endure without government
protection.
If the government prom-
ises cheap, below-cost bread
for all, the bakeries will go
bust unless they are subsi-
dized. Those subsidies would
come from taxpayers, so we’d
be paying the real price any-
way. If the government taxes
cheap washing machines
from abroad, the price of
washing machines will go up,
hurting consumers.
Every form of statism
— from absolute monar-
chy to socialism to fascism
— involves the state form-
ing an alliance with some
faction or another and giv-
ing it preferential treatment.
Protectionism is simply stat-
ism applied to trade. It is a
conspiracy against the public
to raise prices, and nothing
more.
©2018 Tribune content
Agency, LLC
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.