[Mgs] Interesting BGT... + Rover V8

[David Breneman]

--- On Thu, 1/20/11, Norm 2Bs <twobees at sprynet.com> wrote:

> One reason we
didn't get the ex-BOP, then Rover V8-engined
> BGTs was the EPA
> regs.  And,
Nixon wasn't a "car guy."  Must have
> hated them since he was the one who
proposed the EPA.

Nixon was a big government Republican.  There's more
Obama
than Reagan in Nixon's philosophy of government.

Without getting too deeply
into economics, the reason
you need agencies like the EPA, even in a free
economy,
is a condition known as the "tragedy of the commons."
That is, people
have no incentive to husband a resource
that they do not own.  If there's a
lake on my property,
and you dump sewage into it, I'm going to haul you into
court so fast it will make your head spin.  However, if
my property is just
one of thousands surrounding a lake,
and the other property owners are dumping
their sewage
into the lake, I gain little advantage from installing
an
expensive septic system, since my effect on solving
the problem is miniscule.
Pollution laws, in effect
assign property rights to the unowned resource to
the
regulatory agency so that all people will behave (if
the regulations are
*just*, and that's a huge caveat in
today's regulatory climate) as if they
were the sole
owner.  There's nothing anti-capitalist in that.

> I
> remember
the first time I flew into LA in early '70s you
> couldn't see the
> ground at
mid-day until you were over the 110, maybe not
> even until the 405.

Assuming
that "the 110" and "the 405" are freeways,
you sound like a child of LA.  Was
your flight a
return one?