November 03, 2004
Wednesday

Ty Rettke made an interesting observation regarding spending on campaign literature. I know that our household has easily received at least four dozen pieces of literature in the last few weeks.

The bigger picture is that candidates for political office in America have spent more than $1.5 billion dollars this year. That would probably only buy about half an aircraft carrier or a single Knik Arm bridge, but you have to wonder what possible greater long-term good that money could create in our country.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know what the real opportunity cost is for the hundreds of millions of dollars we spend each election cycle. The individual givers would probably just fritter their portion of it away for food and shelter while the corporate givers would just give out more stock options.

Would it be Un-American to suggest a system similar to most other Democracies, where the party in power calls an election that is held in 90 days and the amount of money spent for advertising is limited by law? I suppose.

Dave Kiffer
Ketchikan, Alaska

Related Viewpoint:

Campaign Literature by Ty Rettke - Ketchikan, AK - USA

 

Write a Letter -------Read Letters

E-mail the Editor

Sitnews
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska