Colorado Springs

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, and perhaps I'm picking on one town unfairly, but what is going on with Colorado Springs? First, the city votes to not raise taxes in the face of falling revenue due to the recession, so HUGE budget cuts go into effect. The town becomes a microcosm of letting free market principles work. City street lights and parks are shut down. Citizens can pay to have service restored, so after awhile you can tell what parts of town are affluent enough to pay for city lights and what parts are not. Some folks are willing to pay more to have the service returned than it would have cost them in taxes. But this lack of logic doesn't stop the town.

Now, the story breaks that an Easter Egg hunt has been cancelled in the town because of over zealous parents. I want my kids to get eggs too, but sometimes you don't. That's LIFE, people. What is wrong with these parents? I think my own hometown has shut down it's easter egg hunt. When I was growing up, the local Lions Club would sponser this massive easter egg hunt at the city park. they would rope off different sections of the park for different age groups, and cover the ground in these frankly awful sugar 'eggs'. You could also get a golden egg that you would redeem for a chocolate bunny. After the event, everyone would receive an ice cream bar. My grandpa was a member of the club, and one year he just 'happened' to be helping out with the pen that I was going to be hunting eggs in. When the hunt starts, I naturally run over to my grandpa because he was spreading out eggs and I wanted to be near him. I vaguely remember picking up eggs and then suddenly I find a golden egg! Cool! My parents were happy but I remember them making a comment about how grandpa accidentally 'dropped' the egg when I was there. So it was fixed. That's about all the parental interference I recall seeing when I participated. I do remember when I was older and we went there with my younger brother some parents would jump in to get eggs. What is wrong with these parents? Aren't you just teaching your kids that 'Mommy or Daddy will be there to make all your problems go away.' ?

What I don't like about free market principles in these cases is that they are so focused on the individual. We live in a society. We all need to work together. I'm not advocating that everyone should have a government paid for ipad, but what is going on is haves vs have nots. Which actually if you think about it is exactly what free market principles advocates.