Saturday, December 08, 2012

Wealthy NYC suburb makes it illegal to hang laundry outside since it looks 'low class' | Mail Online

Wealthy NYC suburb makes it illegal to hang laundry outside since it looks 'low class' | Mail Online: Residents of a wealthy village near New York have been ordered not to hang their laundry outside their homes as it makes them look 'low class.'

The board of Great Neck on Long Island has passed a law which makes it a criminal offense to use a clothesline in front of your home.

The punishment if they are caught is a fine of up to $1,000 or, in severe cases, 15 days in jail.
-------------------
Too much like Appalachia for a rich suburb on Long Island?

1 comment:

Private Citizen said...

A mantra of the right-wing is that government should act more like a business. This is what happens when it does.

I'm sure that right-wingers will point to this incident as evidence that government is evil, and suggest privatization as the answer.

"Studying HOAs may also help us to identify how and why
local governments are failing to maximize returns for
their residents.
Ideally, the knowledge provided by private governments
could be used to improve services for everyone."


- Amanda Agan and Alexander Tabarrok
"What Are Private Governments Worth?" (200 KB PDF)
Regulation (The Cato Institute) Fall 2005

Contrary to the silly libertarians of the Cato Institute, "the knowledge provided by private governments" was more likely to lead to what Fred Reed called

"the formation of a hybrid system: The wretched political aims
of communist regimes pursued by efficient capitalist means."


While Fred was commenting on the American surveillance state (c. early 2003?), it is also a perfect description of HOA corporations.