OC Register LTE

My LTE in response to this story was published today (half way down the page). My original letter, which was edited by the OC Register, was slightly longer and finished with a rhetorical question that I liked, but that they shed. The original is as follows:

As scandalous as the expenditures detailed in today’s story (“UCI study: Egregious example of wasteful spending”) undoubtedly are, the deeper question remains: “Why have we entrenched a system where government routinely pilfers from the industrious and then determines how, and to whom, it will redistribute the spoils?”

As an alternative, I suggest we return to the original American system—that of capitalism—under which those who earn the wealth decide what to do with it. If a producer wishes to study “World of Warcraft”, or anything else for that matter, he’s entirely free to use his own money to do so, isolating the rest of us from the costs of his desires. Simple, practical and moral—what more could one ask for?