Multiple editorials have recently surfaced in local papers concerning car-towing in the city. Gary Smith, in his article to the Daily Egyptian, Thursday, Aug. 24, titled How to get rich in Carbondale, humorously outlined how start-up towing companies exploit students, make money and succeed in their business in Carbondale. He has never seen anything like this in any other town.
August 31, 1995
The goal of making money and getting rich is not limited to the city of Carbondale or to the towing businesses in town. The University itself maintains a parking division with full-time ticket-issuing officers who themselves are experts in issuing tickets (and) would arrange for towing as the need arises. Maybe ticket-officers are even promoted on the quantum of tickets issued daily.
We can’t blame Carbondale, the towing business or the University’s parking division. We have to acknowledge the reality of a business-survival strategy of capitalism, subtly called a free-market system, and simply defined as a system where anything can be sold or bought for money. In other words one’s misery can be another’s glory. It’s all right if it brings in money, and as long as the money is from someone else’s pocket. Call this a course in reality 9-1-1.
But profit in any business is based on repeat business. The absence of repeat business results in business failure and subsequent closure. Good enough, capitalism offers multiple choices or alternatives and it is self-correcting.
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If your car has been ticketed or towed once in Carbondale in ignorance of the reality of our national culture or the law, try not to repeat the offense. You will cease creating repeat business for towers and ticketers and guess what will happen! An African proverb says:When hunters learn to shoot without missing, flying birds should learn when and where to perch.
Graduate student, health education
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