Mailbag:

The attention paid to 600 tea party dissidents in Nashville last week mystifies me. You’d think there were 10,000 of them. I could find no solutions to the nation’s problems in their comments. The sole unifying element among the delegates seemed to be a desire for less government involvement in their lives.

I’m a skeptic. I taught economics for a dozen years at National University in Costa Mesa, and, when I presented my students with a problem and asked them how they would solve it, their solutions invariably involved government interference in otherwise free markets.

One of my favorites was organ transplants. Currently the government sets the price for donated organs at zero, and there is a shortage of them. How to solve this problem?

Invariably, my students would suggest tax credits, subsidies, regulations, etc. When I would propose the option of letting supply and demand solve the problem, they balked at the prospect. Creating a market for donated organs would, they realized, result in more organs and less of a shortage. But they also realized the price would rise to levels where only wealthy people or people with good insurance could get one.

Further, everyone with insurance would see their premiums rise when insurers realized they had to cover these new higher prices, and my students realized they would see their premiums rise. They preferred the options that invited more government involvement to the market option of higher premiums.

Thus, I find it interesting that otherwise conservative Newport Beach, when confronted with the problem of leaf blowers, seems to be racing to the option of a government ban (“Leaf blowers stirring gripes,” Feb. 10). Where, neighbors, are your conservative principles? Shouldn’t we let the free market decide this one? If you surrender your principles on such a simple matter as leaf blowers, how can you maintain them in the face of complex issues such as, for example, the reform of health care?

Bob Schmidt

Corona del Mar

What is the purpose of leaf blowers?

Two things race to mind when I think of the worst sounds in the world: street sweepers and leaf blowers. I was extremely pleased to read that another city may be putting the kibosh on such a useless gardening tool (“Leaf blowers stirring gripes,” Feb. 10).

What’s the ideal purpose of them anyway? They’re loud backpacks that basically send the message, “Here, you clean this up.” They’re debris pushers, environmental irritants. I’ve never seen a gardener use a leaf blower to corral dirt and leaves into a sack. That stuff always ends up in the gutter or the yard of a neighbor. Gardeners are laborious workers and I appreciate them, but that one tool of their trade irritates me like a fresh rash.

It’s not just the sound either. A leaf blower seems like the lazy offspring of an old-fashioned rake and a long-handled broom. I hope the residents and the City Council of Newport Beach will follow Laguna Beach’s example and execute the ban.

John Synco

Long Beach