Talking Trash

Colorado Springs has heard a lot of trash talk from certain Denverites about our choice of budget cuts, but at least we can still get the garbage collected when things get tight. Unlike Denver, and a lot of supposedly-"progressive" cities, we have embraced a groundbreaking innovation called "private garbage collection" -- a system that's reliable, affordable and frees residents from the threat of garbage strikes or service cuts when a contract expires or the money runs low.

Believe it or not, you don't need government, or government workers, to pick up garbage and transport it to the dump. Turns out that there are very reliable private companies that will provide this service, at very competitive rates, if the government simply declines to get into the business. Makes you wonder what other "government functions" could be performed by the competitive sector, if the government didn't insist on doing everything.

Not that I'm gloating or anything. It's just a reminder that not everything we do in Colorado Springs is backward or wrong. In point of fact, we do a lot of things the right way, despite all the trash talking we sometimes hear from misinformed outsiders.