Paying hundreds of dollars for a season pass to ski down mountains. Mountains that are a natural and glorious feature of the earth. Just who the fuck decided they could own slopes? Who decided that could be private property? It's a mountain. With snow on it. Snow that nobody had to buy or produce. Snow that we're lucky enough to have fall straight from the heavens to the earth. Really good powdery snow, just perfect for skiing.
And you know, it's not even that I have to pay to use it that pisses me off. It's that I'm paying a rate that allows for a landowner/developer to earn a profit. Why couldn't the federal government develop the land for the people's use? Maybe our use fees would cover maintenance costs (ever heard of a national park?). How hard would that be? To have the same great skiing but managed by a non-profit government branch? Why does someone get to profit off mountains? I mean, let's say the ski or outdoor recreation industry were nationalized. How does society or the economy hurt? Just as many people will be employed. More people will be able to take advantage of local, natural recreation. Can't we have ANY land use that's by the people, for the people?
/rant
Check out this awesome book about land use and land ownership in the contemporary American west. It's a little more intelligent and thoughtful than my rant, and I know T, at least, is interested in the political and theoretical implications of land reform/land as private property. In the book, Trimble begins an investigation of dwindling public land in the state of Utah, and a plan by oil mogul Earl Holding to turn some of Utah's last public land into a cash-cow ski resort, using the 2002 Olympics as an excuse to get it done, despite major opposition from the local community. While researching Holding's dirty business dealings and writing a book about the need to preserve public land, Trimble falls in love with a piece of undeveloped land himself, and begins building on it. Bargaining for Eden is a fascinating look at the many facets of land issues, from the sentimental to the political and economic.
