Costly Error

As we round out this week with multiple examples of poor choices and why government should remain limited, here is another example of politicians making poor decisions and costing taxpayers lots of money.

In the hope that clean, well-maintained toileting facilities would lead to cleaner behavior among the homeless, Seattle spent upwards of $5 million dollars on space age stainless steel facilities.

They had purchased and operated five high-tech public toilets downtown in an effort to eliminate public defecation believing this was a health and safety issue.

They falsely believed that people are only as bad as their circumstances make them.

These high tech facilities became dens of prostitution and drug use and in the first two years of operation, the city responded to 7,418 reports of human waste in the streets, more than three times the 2,400 reports in the two years prior

Now the city is looking to rid themselves of these facilities and have listed them on eBay with a minimum bid of $89,000. The stainless steel units, pictured with stains, dents, and graffiti has received only a few bidders of a couple thousand dollars.

This has been a disastrous plan highlighting the false ideology prevalent among many well-intentioned government officials.

Let's limit government to what it was originally intended for and keep them from trying to protect people from themselves!