Theft at the Public Till
impossible to quantify. By contrast, to any business that is used to having deliveries by truck during the work day, the increased costs of either van service or staying open added hours to accommodate when truck traffic is allowed, the costs are easily quantified. An identifiable group with quanti- fiable costs has an easy time shifting debate when the beneficiaries are the amorphous “all of us” and the benefits are not quantifiable. I might argue that the benefits from such a shift would be so great in terms of quality of life and psychology of living in the City that they out- weigh the aggregate of the potential costs to businesses, but my argument would be dismissed as naked assertion of an unknown pitted against easily measured numbers. If I replied that the policy of allowing truck traffic made sense when Manhattan was a manufacturing center, and that both com- merce and tourism (now the City’s two biggest industries) would benefit, again my arguments would be dismissed as mere conjecture. The fact that the trucks have always been allowed. The fact that ef- forts to increase vigilance in towing policies are perceived as “anti-business” when directed against truck traffic. The fact that not only are the business interests organized but so are the truck drivers, while the beneficiaries of a “no trucks between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.” proposal are not organized... these facts mean the proposal has no chance -- despite the “fact” that the public, indeed the voters, would be better off if the proposal were to become law. This calculus is what allows us to get ripped off. In this example it is the citizens of New York City whose quality of life suffers, but there are many other examples and one of them probably involves you. In this confusing web, who takes the time and makes the effort to look out for the welfare of our children? In the public sector world those in- dividuals are few and far between. Why? Because we have never created any incentives for them to exist. Instead the incentives are concerned with getting re-elected (we do not allocate any votes for our children) and with keeping ones hold on power or a job (again areas where it is difficult to give influence to the children). In the corporate world, the concept of “maxi- mizing shareholder value” has been criticized for its resulting emphasis on short-term profits and stock price. When we raise the concept of long-term
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