Just say No to the twenty-something billionaires

Finally, something we can all agree on. Liberals and conservatives, pro-government and anti-tax activists alike are climbing all over each other to say “Hell No” to the Trail Blazers’ call for a public bailout.

Everyone points to Paul Allen’s wealth as their reason to deny his troubled NBA basketball team any public funding. “He’s got plenty of money.” “It’s his poor management of the team that’s at fault.” “The Blazers offer a poor product (lousy games).”

We may be on to something here. Paul Allen doesn’t deserve any of our money because he’s worth around $20 billion and he’s delivering a poor product. Let him either spend some of his own money to fix things, move or sell the team.

Applying this argument to another twenty-something billionaire yields this:

Oregon doesn’t deserve any more of our money. It spends over $20 billion every single year in its all funds budget and it delivers poor services, especially a poor school system for our children. Let the state improve the schools with the resources it already has, or give families the freedom to take the money misspent on their children now and use it to buy a better education somewhere else.

Paul Allen’s wealth aside, basketball is not a proper function of government. But we do owe him a debt of gratitude for opening our eyes to what’s been going on around here. Next time a twenty-something billionaire asks for public money, just show him the door. In Oregon’s case, show it the school house door and demand that door be flung open wide so families can make better choices with the money the government is already spending on their children.

Who ever dreamed that a basketball team’s troubles would teach us all such an important public lesson?