When scrolling through the Corner, it’s rare to come across much that hints at socialism, but then I came across this from Comrade Abel, who intervened in a discussion on highway signage (come to the Corner for insight into the burning issues of the day) between Messrs. Pino and Butler:
I appreciate Butler’s desire to increase the humor of the everyday, while I find myself agreeing with Dominic but thinking he doesn’t go nearly far enough. Really, there shouldn’t be any nonessential signage at all on or along the roadways, to include: billboards, sandwich boards, political screeds, or diner neon. There shouldn’t be a single thing on the interstate system that isn’t there to explicitly convey road conditions, location, and closures.
To quote Mrs. Thatcher, “no, no, no”.
Billboards, sandwich boards, and (more please) neon are evidence of the exuberance of free markets, and, by letting consumers (in this case, drivers and others in the car) know what’s out there for them to buy, they are part of the information process that makes markets work more efficiently, creating more prosperity. The finest, of course, are also roadside Americana, sometimes evocative of place (when driving along I-40 in New Mexico, I, for one, welcome the signs telling me that all the abundance of Clines Corners is only so many miles away) and, sometimes, evocative of another time.
And the political screeds, even if wrongheaded or possibly insane, are signs of debate — evidence, if sometimes demented, of democracy at work.
Let the billboards be.