In Malibu, the fascination of politics as an activity depends almost wholly on whether you are on the winning or losing side of the question. The 8 a.m. Coffee Group believes that honest disagreement is a good sign of progress. The Malibu Old Timers and Curmudgeons are alive and well at Lily’s Café. The theme of coffee chatter over the final days of 2003 was altered from local Measure M to the value of a free market in today’s society. The Lily’s Crowd values open conversation and the loud voices are not raised in anger, but in the deftness of age. Here are just a few of the coffee group’s ranting as I recall them.
Malibu based toy company, Jakks Pacific, can outsource to an East Indian subcontractor because it’s a free market. General Motors moved several of its factories to Mexico in the interest of a free market. A United States bank incorporated in Bermuda to avoid taxes because it’s free market.
Malibuites can buy HP printers made in Mexico and shirts made in Bangladesh. We are free to purchase almost anything we want from many different countries but, heaven help the elderly who dare to buy their prescription drugs from a Canadian or a Mexican pharmacy. The politicians call it un-American! And you think the pharmaceutical companies don’t have a powerful lobby?
And that is all I have to say.
Tom Fakehany