LiveWire

(This title is a salute to P.J. O’Rourke’s indispensable tomes.)

A post by Maynard

Tammy mentioned this email that’s making the rounds:

Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it.

They failed and it closed. Now, we are trusting the economy of our country and 850+ Billion Dollars to a pack of nitwits who couldn’t make money running a whorehouse and selling booze.

I think that pretty much captures the spirit of the moment. However, intellectual honesty requires that we clarify some details. The Feds did indeed seize and try to run the brothel. (This is standard practice when a business is acquired: Keep it running until it can be sold.) However, like the owners of so many other struggling businesses, the government got tangled up in its own red tape. In spite of intense efforts on the part of lawyers and bureaucrats, the Mustang Ranch never managed to actually open its doors while under government management. (Here’s a news report.)

Today the land has been cleared and is being restored to its natural state, at a cost of millions of dollars. The government can’t run a business, but it can certainly put it on track to be eradicated, and at great expense.

The Feds got the property as a result of then-owner Joe Conforte‘s failure to pay taxes. Conforte subsequently fled to Brazil. In retrospect, this was an unfortunate move. If he’d only hung around a few more years, he could have been Treasury Secretary.