Give Enron a Chance

How can you blame the free market for the energy crisis? If anything, blame the government. How can there be deregulation when the government is setting price controls? Yeah, price controls are so that the companies' prices don't get out of hand. But by having the price controls, the companies aren't able to sell electricity at the true price. Which in turn is forcing the electric companies (PG&E) to run up billions of dollars of debt. They are currently $8 billion in debt.

Now that the government has done such a good job of keeping the prices of electricity down, we are just going to have to pay more and more taxes to help subsidize the electric companies so that they are able to stay in business. The free market can't be blamed because it hasn't been given a chance. There can't be a free market with government intervention, and there is plenty of that.

I think that you have the wrong idea about the free market. The free market is about letting the people make choices for themselves with minimal government intervention. I understand that you are worried about companies getting too big. The only way that they can get big in the free market is if people like their products. So by attacking the companies, you are harming the consumers (the people). If enough people don't like a company and stop buying their products, then that company will be forced to make a product that people want or will go out of business.

By going against the free market, that can only mean that you are pro-government. I just don't see how people can put down the free market when it hasn't really been given a chance. That's like saying I don't like pasta when I haven't even tried it. Give me your thoughts.

Patrick, via e-mail

Those are my thoughts.

Been There and Seen It

I think your "Two Viewpoints: Palestinian and Israeli" article in the Jan. 3 issue is damn near the best thing I've read on the issue in many a long moon. I have no doubt that you've received some, if not a lot, of shit from some readers for your coverage of what's going on over there, probably even had a few cancellations, although I like to think that ETS! readers have a much better grasp of what's really happening in our world than do many of the "left" in this country. I myself want to heap praises on you for your coverage, for the information you give us in such a short space.

I spent several months in Palestine, in Hebron, in 1989 during the first Intifada, much of the time under curfew. One must actively seek alternative information sources, and I don't mean The Nation, to get any kind of picture in this country of why Palestinians are out fighting and dying in the streets. I find myself so desperate for just a glimpse of Palestinian life to be represented in the mainstream media that I'm glad when Jennifer Ludden gives a report on NPR. I mean, at least she goes to the West Bank and Gaza once in a while and talks to Palestinians. The three writers you chose to quote in the article are, in my opinion, a perfect combination, especially given the limited amount of space to try and say so much.

And so, speaking of The Nation, I'm sick of their fucking Zionist FLAME ads and I'm not giving them any more money. I'm sending it to ETS! instead. I'll send them a copy of your article to illustrate my point. Thanks to Maria, and thanks to everyone involved in getting ETS! out to the rest of us. Y'all are great writers and I love it that we're on the same side!

Jackie Wolf, Lopez Island, WA

No Time for Indigestion!

Put on your bibs! Fresh for the new millenium, served up like a catered banquet for our dining pleasure, comes a delectable smorgasbord from the Commander-In-Chef's cabinet, served with a tantalizing side dish of energy deregulation from California. ("A little extra oil on yer salad, pardner?" asks our chef.)

This is no time for anorexic responses. American progressives, it's time for a nation-wide feast! The Bush cabinet is a progressive organizer's dream (not to mention full-employment plan). They've got us right where we want 'em.

For those of us working to educate the public on the corporate corrosion of democracy, we couldn't ask for a better lesson plan than the government of our new Commander-In-Thief. (First corporations steal the election from the public, then their #1 candidate steals it from their #2 candidate. Just another hostile takeover, as business and government become one.) As this Pretender-In-Chief extols the virtues of the free market, we need merely review our textbook example in California, where the market's Invisible Hand has been flicking off light switches and picking pockets with impunity.

In this context, shooting down the agenda of the Banana Republicans should be like shooting really big fish in a really big barrel.

The stakes are high, but the opportunity is enormous. If we can shut down the WTO, we can shut down this corporate cabal masquerading as a government. Then it was 50 thousand in the streets. This time--50 million? Let's get busy.

Lansing Scott, Seattle, WA

ETS! encourages comments, feedback, tips, corrections, and info! Please keep them as concise as possible so we can print as many different voices as possible: ETS!, P.O. Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, or e-mail ets@scn.org.