HT Wall Street Journal
(Guest post by Greg Forster)
Continuing the Arkasas theme, the Wall Street Journal has a fascinating story today about the little rock for which Little Rock was named.
And continuing the theme of government spending, the story notes that $650,000 is about to be spent to excavate the remains of the original little rock for public display. $350,000 of the money was privately raised, the city is kicking in $100,000 from bonds, and the county is kicking in $200,000.
My more libertarian-leaning friends may scoff at that, but I’m for it. Even Adam Smith insisted that it’s important for government to spend money to “maintain the dignity of the state.” He meant all the lavish pomp that surrounds the king and Parliament, but this is the American equivalent of that – it’s affirming the role of our shared past (even in the form of a rock we dug up out of the mud of the Arkansas River) in the foundations of our nationhood.
UPDATE: Of course, it’s not my money, so it’s easy for me to support spending it.
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