The Line

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119007893529930697.html

"It was a sunny, 70-degree day here in Awbrey Butte, an exclusive neighborhood of big, modern houses surrounded by native pines.

"To Susan Taylor, it was a perfect time to hang her laundry out to dry. The 55-year-old mother and part-time nurse strung a clothesline to a tree in her backyard, pinned up some freshly washed flannel sheets -- and, with that, became a renegade.

"The regulations of the subdivision in which Ms. Taylor lives effectively prohibit outdoor clotheslines. In a move that has torn apart this otherwise tranquil community, the development's managers have threatened legal action. To the developer and many residents, clotheslines evoke the urban blight they sought to avoid by settling in the Oregon mountains."

Neighborhood associations and the like are an extremely troubling trend. A fit over a clothes line in Bend, Oregon, well, for one thing it says a lot about what Bend has turned into. and it's not flattering.

But there an even bigger problem than the short sighted non-Oregonians that have unsustainably and irresponsibly ballooned the city of Bend. Neighborhood associations are frequently private governments created to support the "haves" and prevent them from having to pay taxes to support "have-nots". They are dangerous as a trend, and not just because they compromise property rights, but because of their potential for bigotry, elitism and the drawing off of resources that would otherwise be available for the greater good.

Private schools, private sewer systems, private street lights, private police, private fire protection, medical care available only to those that can pay, and an Iraq full of private armies even. What does this say about the future of "America"?

In the old, old days, people living together in an area might get together, have a meeting and decide to pool resources for something the community needs. One might call the pooled resources a "tax base". One might call those selected to oversee the process a "government". Since the 1980s when Reagon made "the government" an enemy, people want to opt out, so they don't have to pitch in to support "those people over there" who are poor, colored, different, whatever. And then the first thing they do is go off and form yet another government "just for us," the good people, the white people, the rich people, the Christian people...

Privatization is the enemy of American democracy. But there's no fighting it. It's really just yet another symptom of mass-stupidity.