Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE An Open Letter to P. J. O'Rourke Normally I don't let myself get worked up by such trash, but there is the danger that someone might believe some of the lies you've printed about...
...It's amazing that you're willing to incriminate yourself so—perhaps the ugliest American in print...
...What is surprising is how casually he lays aside the free market analysis that is the hallmark of the prestigious organization of which he is a part...
...I was not aware that your paper's "values" allowed for such achievements ["Fairlie Tales," by Philip Terzian, TAS, May 1990...
...But just as likely, the money stays above ground buying food, transportation, clothing, perhaps even a condo...
...David M. Wagner Manassas, Virginia Maurice Cranston replies: I agree with your correspondent that Chesterton and Belloc were populists, but I would argue against him that there is a great difference between such populism and democracy as known in American political experience and as it is studied in American political science...
...Laskoe took the joke seriously...
...Populism vs...
...Michael N Laskoe Charlottesville, Virginia Ernest van den Haag replies: Mr...
...CORRESPONDENCE An Open Letter to P. J. O'Rourke Normally I don't let myself get worked up by such trash, but there is the danger that someone might believe some of the lies you've printed about Nicaragua ["Mood Swings in Managua," TAS, May 1990...
...In short, their motive is charity, not helping the beggar avoid work...
...Alexandra Escudero Washington, D.C...
...First, unlike producers (or advertisers who offer services valuable to them) beggars neither produce nor offer anything in exchange for the money they solicit...
...Laskoe thinks begging is a legitimate transaction that fits into our market system...
...Usually the beggar makes a nuisance of himself so that people pay to get rid of him...
...Democracy Maurice Cranston ["American vs...
...Even when people give quite voluntarily, they do not do so because they (continued on page 39) THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1990 7 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 7) think begging an acceptable occupation that deserves their support, a legitimate alternative to "menial jobs" as Mr...
...Apparently he believes whatever beggars tell him...
...If you'd continued north on your high and mighty tour of Nicaragua on election day perhaps you could have talked to some of the Nicaraguans who knew Ben Linder and were enjoying night classes and better health because of the electricity that he brought to their town for the first time...
...Anecdotal evidence further suggests that begging, like any occupation, has both stellar and average performers, with the best making quite a very good living indeed...
...As applied to the latter three, this may be a colorable oversimplification...
...There are several reasons for not volunteering...
...Second, giving is not quite as voluntary as Mr...
...Both of these writers were populists to the core...
...It won't put a crimp in your day, but stay the hell away from me...
...Money given to a beggar is a voluntary decision...
...The fact that local governments sometimes see fit to regulate it in a manner similar to business zoning laws only underscores its status as a legitimate occupation...
...In fact, the begging transaction is arguably purer than any number of other consumer transactions...
...Yes, sometimes it moves into the unofficial economy of drugs or gambling...
...One is not led to expect a gain in material wealth, greater comfort, or better looks...
...No one involved in more traditional occupations would ever spend his money that way, would he...
...He does not tell why he thinks beggars are not on the dole...
...Dear Pleszszcynski [sic], There's a mistake in almost every paragraph of your man Terzian's "piece" on Fairlie, but don't be alarmed: the whole thing is filth...
...He does not tell why he favors it, i.e., why he favors people soliciting gifts, begging, instead of working...
...Democracy, thus understood, is a form of pluralistic, representative government, upholding individual rights of life, liberty, and property, a method of government based on a free capitalist economic system of the kind which both Chesterton and Belloc attacked and sought to replace with a variant of socialism they called "distributism...
...He may even take them to task for not paying taxes...
...It is direct action...
...Rather, I advocated that those who, as I do, feel that begging is not in the social interest or in theirs, should not give to beggars (with a few exceptions...
...How lenient are we here in this country on foreigners barging in to voting stations on election day and snorting as if they owned the place...
...Begging is legal...
...Laskoe thinks...
...Further, money given to a beggar does not simply flow into some black hole or even the coffers of overseas corporations...
...Under an economic analysis, begging is a solicitation for your dollars...
...van den Haag so despises should suggest to him that begging is a viable alternative to both the dole and the menial jobs whose help-wanted signs he sees everywhere...
...The existence (and number) of the professional panhandlers Mr...
...But to excoriate them simply because they choose one way of making a living over another jeopardizes the assumptions of value supporting many other, more "proper" occupations...
...TAS, April 1990] comes as little surprise...
...The Macroeconomics of Begging That Ernest van den Haag should find begging by healthy young men reprehensible ["Why Are They Begging...
...The right to invest one's time and energy in a licit occupation of one's choosing is a cornerstone of the free market system...
...no different in essence than TV ads for the latest diet nostrum or stockbrokers cold-calling you at the office...
...one man's lunch money becoming another man's lunch money...
...Finally, since giving to a beggar is voluntary, Mr...
...Contrast that with the collection of tax dollars and their flow to programs one would not voluntarily support and the government's inefficient distribution of resources to those one does support...
...Not quite duress, but not quite voluntary either...
...As applied to Chesterton and Belloc, it is absurd...
...Cranston read Chesterton and Belloc, or is he just going with his hunches about what "RCs" are like...
...No product or service is held out for exchange...
...Laskoe favors voluntariness...
...He is correct in stressing, as I did, that begging is an alternative to menial jobs...
...P J. O'Rourke replies...
...TAS, April 1990] links G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc with Percy Wyndham Lewis, Evelyn Waugh, and T. S. Eliot as men with "no love for democracy but a profound mistrust of democracy, and no great enthusiasm for personal liberty either...
...For the most part, it stays in the same arena...
...Laskoe alleges...
...van den Haag, like the rest of us, has the option of not doing businesswith beggars...
...British Conservatism: an Even Match...
...There is an old joke which has a beggar ask for one dollar for a cup of coffee...
...To which the beggar replies: "Give me a quarter or a buck, but don't tell me how to run my business...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JUNE 1990 39...
...Beware...
...Leon Wieseltier The New Republic Washington, D.C...
...There can be no misunderstanding of the nature of the exchange or the value received...
...They are deceived...
...Now, I did not advocate making begging a crime...
...Miss Escudero did, I notice, continue north—all the way to Washington, D.C...
...Has Mr...
...Washington is certainly a place where she can talk to the kind of people who knew Ben Linder and enjoy night classes...
...Why foster a non-productive occupation and decrease the incentive for productive work...
...He also thinks that begging is "purer" than other transactions because non-deceptive...
...In my first and last perusal of The American Spectator, I must say that it takes the cake for vulgarity and is a shameless waste of trees...
...Rather they give because the beggar implies that he's in distress and has no reasonable alternative...
...Hence he must agree that we can refrain from a transaction we do not wish to volunteer for...
...A passer-by tells him that he would get more by asking for a quarter...
...When they criticized the institutions of their day that advanced under democratic pretenses, it was to argue that they in fact promoted the interests of elitesover those of the common man...
...People laugh...
...Laskoe thinks that begging is profitable and legal and therefore should be acceptable as "a viable alternative to both the dole and . . . menial jobs...
Vol. 23 • June 1990 • No. 6
