Some interesting issues coming to light in the US:
1) Is the North American model of public wildlife access ‘socialist’? Yes, because highly gentrified wildlife for the elite is a great road to walk! NOT. Ideology trumps process and preferred outcomes all the time with rabid ideologues.
2) Game disappearing from the western states? I am no expert but could that have to do with urban sprawl? The proliferation of ‘ranchettes’ on heavily subdivided family farms? Habitat degradation? Agricultural competition?
These strident privatization voices emitting from those with a political and economic incentive are concerning indeed…
© Brian Joubert
This bit about outcomes is the true comeback to the attack on a populist, collectivized wildlife system that we have in the U.S. and Canada. Conservative critics of the left-wing social and economic policies argue against these policies by saying "we shouldn't guarantee equal outcomes, just opportunities". The privatized system some are advocating for in the U.S. guarantees "hunting success" for the people with the most $, and denies opportunity to everyone else. The traditional, democratic system of hunting combines both collective commitment to opportunity and the need for individual effort and initiative for even the possibility of success.
ReplyDeleteIn some states, people have the right to hunt (and recreate in other fashions) on other people's land unless it's posted otherwise. So not only do we have the wildlife model, but the public also has the right to access private land. In that sense, there is even more of an element of socialism.
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered how the tea party (and like) actually deal with this mentally.