🚀 go-pugleaf

diana@aisb.ed.ac.uk (Diana Bental) writes:

>In a democracy, most of get used to shrugging our shoulders over small
>amounts of money spent on something that benefits others but not us,
>or on something that seems wasteful or even mildly wrong. When the
>amount is small, people get upset if they have either (a) a down on
>the government body that is spending the money or (b) a belief that
>what is being done is very wrong indeed. Either way, the trivial
>amounts of money involved are not the real issue.

The problem is that several "trivial" amounts of money soon add up to a
large amount of money. If the amount here is so very trivial, then
surely those who think that it's money well spent would be happy to
spend this trivial amount themselves and save the taxpayer the expense?

I figure that Hawkwind don't get enough publicity when they visit
Scotland, and I'm sure it's because the band don't have enough money to
spend on advertising. Since there are always more than 840 people at
theconcerts, and I've heard that only 2% of hawkwind fans go to
concerts, it seems that EDC should form a committee and organise to
spend a "trivial" amount of money on advertising for them. Surely nobody
could get upset over spending such a trivial amount of money?

The real problem of course, is that once you start down the road of
Democracy moving from electing representatives to being a system whereby
people can vote themselves slices of other people's money by dint of
government force, Democracy itself is ultimately endangered.

>Anyway, unless EDC are inundated by complaints, I doubt that those
>will outweigh the obvious positive outcomes of the campaign, which
>include the setting up of three groups of volunteers (members of the
>public who contacted EDC as a result of the poster campaign) to find
>out more about and deal with some of the problems it describes.

Fine, if these people are so pleased with the results then it'd seem
reasonable to ask them to refund the money spent to achieve them?

>Nevertheless, it never hurts to send praise of the campaign directly
>to the people holding the purse strings.

It's a common misunderstanding I know, but it bears repeating that
Edinburgh District Council has no money. The people who supply the money
are the taxpayers. It's them you should address your thanks to.

>Best wishes,

>Diana

And mine.

\FoFP

-- 
"Jeese, it's happening already."

   -- Bill Murray as Hunter.S.Thompson in "Where The Buffalo Roam"