Gary D. writes: "An OC crisis unmitigated by 0.5% sales tax will merely hasten the rapid shift toward privatized services of all kinds, including parks, schools, etc., that Mike Davis documents so well in one chapter of his City of Quartz." I know nothing of City of Quartz, but I read in The Economist Sunday that trouble in Orange County was already making it more difficult for other California jurisdictions to raise funds and that LA County has plans to cut 20% of its workforce to reassure investors. Monday at the lunch counter a county employee told me she'd got word her entire division is being eliminated. Cindy Cotter
