Posted on 10/14/2020 5:36:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
When COVID-19 hit, I quarantined in Eastern Massachusetts.
Biking around the woods, I noticed something strange.
There are two campgrounds near my house. One is full. Lots of people pitch tents or park trailers at a place called Maurice's.
A short bike ride away is a much bigger campground that's almost entirely empty.
Why? It's the topic of my new video.
The empty campground is run by the state.
It has great facilities: a new paved road, new bathrooms, etc. Signs direct people to campsites, even to group camping, but there are almost no people. Dozens of picnic tables are turned upside-down.
What a shame. This would be a great place to spend time during the pandemic.
I asked one of the few people camping, "Why is this place so empty?"
"Everything is sold out," he responded.
Indeed, signs do say, "Camp is Full." But the camp is the opposite of full.
"I think it's so empty because of COVID," said another camper.
"Why would COVID-19 make it empty?" I ask. "It's camping! You got lots of room."
She agreed, saying she's also wondered about that.
We asked the Massachusetts Department of Parks why its camp was largely empty. They didn't respond. We kept calling and emailing until, nine days later, someone told us that they'd "had difficulties hiring seasonal employees."
Really?! This summer, Massachusetts had the highest unemployment rate in America. The state offers to pay workers up to $25 an hour, including benefits. Yet, they can't find people who'd work outdoors in a beautiful place in the summer?
Maurice's Campground managed to hire enough staff. They have to because Maurice's is privately owned. If they don't please customers, then they can't stay in business. "If there was no staff, we were the staff," says owner John Gauthier.
Gauthier innovates. Sometimes campers have helped clean the camp or staff the office. To save water, he charges customers 25 cents for six minutes in the shower. At the state camp, water is free; campers can waste all they want.
The government bought the property in 2019 for $3.6 million. Last year, the camp's revenue fell thousands short of its operating costs. Now it loses even more money because it's largely empty.
Such clear demonstrations of the difference between public and private are everywhere. But few people realize the reason why.
Recently, The New York Times published an op-ed by "Sex in the City" actress Cynthia Nixon about her dismay over seeing her kids' public school's "chaotic ... and profoundly unsafe approach to reopening." By contrast, her Netflix production company was totally ready.
She's become a politician, so she blames "underfunding." She doesn't mention that New York's government-run schools spend more than $20,000 per student.
Her production company was ready because it is private. The bosses spend their own money. Spend it well, and they profit. Spend it badly, and they're out of work. That focuses the mind.
Governments spend other people's money. No one spends other people's money as carefully as we spend our own.
The owner of Maurice's Campground tries harder, and because of that, he serves many more campers than the taxpayer-subsidized camp.
"It's kind of unfair," I say to Gauthier. "You have to compete against the government, which is losing all this money."
He answers, "Yeah, it's not a great scenario, but what can we do?"
Governor Charlie Baker is a Republican, but in my opinion he’s up there with Cuomo for intentionally handling COVID badly, hoping it would make Trump look bad.
“It’s kind of unfair,” I say to Gauthier. “You have to compete against the government, which is losing all this money.”
bump
Yep.
What do I say to people when they complain about the horrible roads?
Your tax dollars at work.
I heard someone do a tv interview a couple of years ago.He said roads and airports in Europe were much better than those in the US. He found out why when he watched a pothole being filled. Here, they just shovel some asphalt over it, drive a truck across a few times and leave.
There, they bring in the heavy steamroller. OK probably not steam any more. They press it down, add some more, press it down, same as they do when they originally build the road. The pothole stays patched for 10 years. Here, it’s pothole again, and a bigger one, in a year. I can show you a dozen examples a block from where I sit.
Your tax dollars a work.
Yesterday on our ballot was yet another local initiative to squeeze more tax money out of the voters for these pitiful roads. Looking at the last 30 years of misuse and neglect, I voted no.
I saw an essay a few years ago that discussed how — between our environmental laws and our government unions — it’s just impossible to get roads fixed properly or quickly. The government puts in quite a large effort to make sure you have bad roads. I guess that justifies further tax increases so that they can, you know, “fix” it.
I could understand at the height of the panic and silliness not wanting to allow public use of restrooms and showers, or having to have people go in and clean and restock them. I think the fear was overblown but ok, let's grant them that. Fine, close the bathrooms and showers. (they did) That doesn't mean people with regular campers with their own toilet facilities can't camp safely. We only need access to a power hookup, the potable water source, and the dump station. Campers are already plenty careful with these. Camp sites in some of our favorite spots are a hundred feet or more apart.
During the height of the "safer at home" BS we camped - at a private campground. They made the sensible decision to only bring in RVs in every other slot to increase the distance between campers. Those of us with on-board facilities were asked to use them exclusively. (the campground has full hookups) They did allow tent camping, but only one family/group at a time so that they were the only ones using the camp bathrooms & showers. Duh, this is not hard people, it is common sense not knee-jerk reactions. Although I still believe the whole thing is way, way overblown.
I read somewhere a long time ago that it’s customary for European paving contracts to include a maintenance/repair requirement for a certain number of years. Don’t know if that’s true, but it would certainly provide incentive to the paving companies to do the job right in the first place, and to patch potholes so they stay patched.
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