Welcome to Libertopia. Population: Strawmen.

At least, according to figures from the Liberal Conspiracy Census Committee.

Wondering what “savage cuts” in public spending would actually mean in practice, or what would happen if the government got out of the way of providing basic services? The residents of Colorado Springs are about to find out:

“More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.

Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won’t pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.” And on it goes…

So we have a report of services that are run by government monopolies, with no competition, and thus no incentive to act efficiently, costing too much and being shut down to save money. Oh no! Museums need private funding? Excuse me, but how were they funded before? Public money is merely private money, appropriated by government. Brown grass in parks (which now have to be taken care of on a voluntary basis out of goodwill and a sense of community)?  Oh, the horror.That the article refers to these as “basic services” is just utterly batshit.

Ah, but what of the actually USEFUL services that are being cut, like rozzers and firefighters? Same unavoidable problems apply. Perhaps if the (in this case; the principle applies everywhere) City of Colorado Springs would allocate their spending and their resources more efficiently (oh, wait, they can’t, they’re a bureacracy), there would be no need for tax cuts in the first place, hmm?

But, to the mind of this Lib Con drone, oh, no, the fact that government services are so expensive they’re no longer affordable, and in order to save money, useful ones need to be shut down whilst pointless ones remain is a sign of how wonderful central planning is.

Why is it that everyday, Anarcho Capitalism becomes more and more appealing? *sigh*. I’m off to go read some Hoppe.