Not for sale

Government should stay out of the newspaper business | Joel Belz

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

In an era when more business enterprises than you ever dreamed of are being auctioned off to Uncle Sam, who's to say what shouldn't be on the bidding block?

If it's now OK for the government to be making and selling Corvettes and Chevy pickups, but deciding that Saturns and Oldsmobiles have no future; if it's OK for Washington to decide which banks are paying their top officers too much and which ones are within the bounds of propriety; if it's OK for Congress to decide (however indirectly) that John Doe, with no income and no assets, qualifies for a home loan, but that Jack Smith, with no income and no assets, doesn't qualify . . .

It goes on. No one knows yet whether Uncle Sam will soon be in charge at least of our health insurance system, if not the whole medical system itself. If that happens, another 17 percent of our economy will come under the watchful eye of whichever political party has the most appealing—if not the most competent—candidates in any election cycle.