By Mike Tront – Support Mike on Patreon
For those of us who believe government that governs less, governs best; welfare seems to be a huge bugaboo. Talk to any conservative or libertarian about reducing spending; and some sneer about welfare is sure to come out of their mouth.
Unfortunately, this disdain for welfare is usually directed at the poorer class. However, entitlements for the poorest Americans are only a fraction of welfare given out, since social security, medicare, farm/business subsidies, and of course corporate welfare are more often given to the middle and upper class. With this in mind, the last thing a small government advocate should worry about is food stamps. Especially if they’re trying to win over hearts and minds.
Which brings me to this little gem from NPR on how the National Parks have a minority problem. The irony of NPR calling out the National Parks for being too white is funny, considering 87% of NPR’s terrestrial listening audience is white. But that article is for another day.
So what’s the point? According to the above NPR article: “Collectively, minorities made up just over 20 percent of the visitors to national parks, despite the fact that they made up nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population.”
There’s plenty of reasons given for this, one is the lack of public transportation to the parks, another is the lack of signs in Spanish, and of course another reason is the cost. There’s even a section of the article on how the National Park staff is just too darn white! All of these are valid concerns I’ll admit, but these shouldn’t be the concerns of the public, they should be the concerns of the future owners of the park.
The fact is, it is not fair for people who don’t use the parks, minority or otherwise, to pay for the parks. This is one of the fundamental flaws of government. Government forces people pay for things they otherwise wouldn’t pay for and often times don’t even enjoy!
“But without government, we wouldn’t have these beautiful National Parks!!!” you might say. That is total B.S., we would have National Parks, but it would be no different than any other amusement park. Why doesn’t the government fund Disney World or Cedar Point? Because the people that actually go there fund it. Not only does Disney World NOT cost taxpayers billions of dollars a year, and force minorities and to pay taxes to support them for whites to enjoy, but Disney World PAYS millions in taxes per year!
So if you’re a conservative or libertarian that hates big government, the solution is easy, sell off the National Parks and let businesses run them. That will reduce spending by billions every year, and bring in billions from the sale.
If you’re a liberal or libertarian that hates oppressing minorities and hates welfare for the middle-class and wealthy, then the solution is easy, sell off the National Parks. Stop forcing the millions of people, whether minorities, or poor, or just hate the outdoors, who don’t use them to pay for them.
If you like what I’m doing, please support me on Patreon
Please subscribe for free! I hate spam and will never sell, trade, or give your email address to anyone. We’ll send you the latest blog posts as well as content and humor that you can’t get from the site, including This Week in Hypocrisy
